Dr. Figini Mariangela

Graduated in Pavia in the Department of Pathological Anatomy, she has been involved in the production, characterization, and engineering of antibodies since the beginning of her career. During her years in Cambridge (1991–1993), at the MRC in the group of Sir Greg Winter, the Antibody Phage Display technology was developed. For this research, Winter was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2018; this led to the production of the first human antibody (FDA approval in 2002), and for this, Dr. Figini was recognized as a co-inventor on two patents. She obtained a Master’s degree in Microbiology and Virology with honors. 

In the field of folate receptor research, she contributes to: 

the development of MOv18 IgE, which completed Phase I with positive results (Spicer J. et al., Nature Communications, 2023) and is currently recruiting for a Phase Ib trial (NCT06547840); the construction of a CAR-T, which has just completed Phase I (NCT03585764) at UPENN (USA) (Shah P. et al., JIC, 2021). 

Ongoing projects are mainly focused on the construction of CARs, bispecifics, and immunocytokines; to enhance the potency of antibody-based reagents, a careful study of the target biology is always associated. She is recognized as an inventor in 9 patent families and is the author of more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed international journals.  

She is a board member of "The Folate Receptor society".