Alessandro Sette

Alessandro Sette is a prominent immunologist currently serving as the Division Head at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI), a position he has held since 2003. He is also a professor at LJI and an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego. Born on August 11, 1960, in Rome, Italy, Sette has dedicated over 35 years to studying the immune response, including its implications in cancer, autoimmunity, allergies, and infectious diseases.12

Education and Career

Sette earned his Laurea in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome. He later completed postdoctoral fellowships in Immunology in Italy and at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, Colorado. Before joining LJI, he worked at Cytel in San Diego and co-founded Epimmune.13

Research Contributions

Dr. Sette is known for his work on the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), which catalogs epitopes recognized by the immune system across various diseases. His research has notably included studies on SARS-CoV-2 epitopes during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing significantly to understanding T cell responses.123 He has co-authored over 900 peer-reviewed publications and holds 41 US patents.1

Awards and Recognition

Throughout his career, Sette has received numerous accolades, including:

• American Association of Immunologists Investigator Award (1995)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020)
• Gold Medal from the Italian Society of Internal Medicine (2021)
• Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2023)

He has been ranked among the top influential researchers in biomedical sciences and continues to be a leading figure in immunology research.13