on October 4, 2012
The Robert Bosch Foundation in cooperation with Spektrum der Wissenschaft and Nature has set up a European web site database, AcademiaNet (http://www.academia-net.org/), which present only profiles of highly qualified female scientists in all disciplines. The aim of this initiative is to help increase the number of female academics in decision-making bodies and leading positions across the natural sciences and humanities as women are extremely underrepresented at these positions in science and research in Europe.
Only partner organisations are entitled to propose female scientists for acceptance to the Steering Committee of the AcademiaNet. The selection criteria are: excellent publications track record, outstanding accomplishments awarded with prizes, amount of third-party funding, number of patents, number of speeches held at international science conferences and leadership responsibilities.
Federica Sallusto has been nominated by the Swiss National Science Foundation to join the AcademiaNet which makes her one of the 800 outstanding female scientists from whom profiles are presented in this European prestigious database.
Federica Sallusto is a recognized leader in the field of human cellular immunology. Her research is focused on dendritic cell (DC) and T cell traffic, mechanisms of T cell differentiation, and immunological memory. Together with Antonio Lanzavecchia she reported that immature DCs could be generated by culturing monocytes with GM-CSF and IL-4 and showed that DC maturation could be induced by microbial stimuli or T cell help. Her research led to the discovery of differential expression of chemokine receptors in Th1 and Th2 cells and in immature and mature DCs and to the first characterization of central and effector memory T cells as memory subsets with distinct migratory capacity and effector function. Among her most recent contributions are the memory and flexibility of cytokine gene expression in memory T cells and the characterization of Th17 and Th22 cells. In the mouse system her work has challenged current dogma on lymphocyte traffic in lymph nodes and brain. She showed that NK cells and cytotoxic T cells can migrate to inflamed lymph nodes, where they profoundly modulate T cell responses, and that pioneer CCR6-positive Th17 cells enter the CNS through the choroid plexus, which in turn allows other cells to enter and cause autoimmunity. She received the Pharmacia Allergy Research Foundation Award in 1999, the Behring Lecture Prize in 2009, and was elected member of the German Academy of Science Leopoldina in 2009 and of EMBO in 2011. Since 2011 she is President Elect of the Swiss Society for Allergology and Immunology.
Federica Sallusto is Group leader of the Cellular Immunology Laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona since its creation in 2000.