Luzzatto, Lucio

Foreign Fellows

Elected: 2022

Email: lluzzatto [@] blood.ac.tz

Profile

Lucio Luzzatto (LL) qualified as MD in 1959 from the University of Genoa Medical School; he then trained in Haematology and has Libera Docenza (PhD) in Biochemistry. LL has held academic positions in Nigeria, Italy, Great Britain, USA, Tanzania.
The leitmotiv of LL’s research and teaching has been the understanding of human disease at the molecular level; particularly in the area of blood diseases, for the ultimate purpose to improve their management. LL and colleagues cloned the human G6PD gene in the early eighties, thus laying foundations for the molecular pathophysiology and population genetics of G6PD and G6PD deficiency, as well as mechanisms of malaria selection. LL discovered that paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) is a clonal disorder, introduced the concept of conditional clonal selection and provided supporting evidence: thus rationalising the relationship of clonal expansion with bone marrow failure, and the treatment of PNH.
LL holds several honorary degrees and has received awards and prizes from Learned Societies; he is a member of EMBO, of HUGO, honorary member of the American Society of Hematology, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. LL has 430 articles listed in PubMed, has contributed chapters to major international textbooks, and has written a book for the general public, Capire il Cancro.