Our Team

Dr. Lane trained in Internal Medicine with subspecialties in Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, and then joined the faculty at UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1975, where he served as Chief of Transfusion Medicine from 1990 and Stem Cell Processing (2002) until joining PersImmune in 2015.  He was instrumental in the development of PersImmune’s current clinical trials and Investigational New Drug (IND) applications and remains an Emeritus Professor of Pathology at UCSD School of Medicine. Dr. Lane’s career as a clinician, teacher, and researcher included extensive experience and leadership positions in academic medicine, laboratory investigation, service to professional societies, and clinical trials, the latter including cellular therapy and most recently adoptive immunotherapy.  His bibliography includes more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous research presentations at national societies.

Prior to founding PersImmune, Dr. Vitiello’s scientific activities have been mainly focused on the study of the T cell antigenic repertoire and the requirements for in vitro and in vivo induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Highlights of her scientific career include the discovery of antigen selection by the MHC; the development of HLA-transgenic mice to study the human HLA-restricted CTL repertoire; the relationship between epitope immunodominance and peptide binding affinity to HLA; and the demonstration that adoptive transfer of memory and naïve T cells can prevent cancer in a transgenic mouse model of orthotopic prostate cancer. Working in the human system, Dr. Vitiello has been responsible for the development and testing (Phase I) of the first peptide vaccine to induce a CTL immune response and the development of a procedure to induce a primary CTL response in vitro against myeloid blasts. These T cells can then be adoptively transferred into patients. Dr. Vitiello obtained her doctorate in Pharmacy at the University of Pavia in Italy. Now Dr. Vitiello is currently overseeing the clinical trial (NCT03258359) of personalized adoptive T cell therapy targeting MDS stem cell neoantigens (PACTN).

       

Dr. Ferrari has over 30 years of experience in quality system regulations, biochemical engineering, molecular biology, and facility management. Additionally, he has a proven track record of innovative scientific achievements including preclinical and pilot clinical product development. Prior to his work with PersImmune, Dr. Ferrari was vice president of Operations and Product Development for the Diomics Corporation.

From 1983 through 1987, Dr. Ferrari led the Protein Polymer Project at Syntro Corporation and from 1987 through 1988, he served as a Research Director also for Syntro Corporation. In 1989, he co-founded Protein Polymer Technologies, Inc. where he served as the Vice President of Laboratory Operations and Polymer Production and the director of Molecular Genetics. From 1980 to 1983, Dr. Ferrari was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cellular Biology Department at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California.

Dr. Ferrari received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Pavia in Italy where he was a postdoctoral Fellow as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics.