award
Valentina Venzin, winner of the 2026 ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prize in Immunology
On July 16, Valentina Venzin was awarded the 2026 ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prize in Immunology for her research on the mechanisms underlying cooperation between hepatic CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells during chronic persistence of hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Within the Dynamics of Immune Responses laboratory led by Matteo Iannacone at the IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Valentina Venzin demonstrated that CD4⁺ T cells can locally assist dysfunctional HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells directly in the liver, independently of secondary lymphoid organs, thereby redefining the liver as an active site of adaptive immune instruction. In mechanistic terms, she discovered that CD4⁺ T cells can activate macrophages in the liver, inducing production of IL-27, a cytokine that is both essential and sufficient to restore the effector function of dysfunctional CD8⁺ T cells in mouse models and in the T cells of patients with chronic HBV infection. The results revealed a previously unrecognized tissue-specific immune circuit and identified IL-27 as a promising therapeutic target for restoring antiviral immunity during chronic infections.
After a proposal from the Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology (SIICA), Valentina Venzin became a postdoctoral fellow in the Meta-organism Unit led by Yasmine Belkaid. Her current research, supported by an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, focuses on the developmental origins of sexual dimorphism in the immune response and the way in which sex hormones shape immune identity and tissue-specific immunity.
Since 2012, the FONDATION ACTERIA (Acting on European Research in Immunology and Allergology) and EFIS (European Federation of Immunological Societies) have awarded ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prizes every two years to early career scientists in the fields of immunology and allergology. The prizes, two each in immunology and allergology, recognize outstanding PhD research in European institutes by early career scientists who defended their thesis no more than three years before their nomination for the award. ACTERIA prizes offer individual cash awards and potential funding for three-year research projects within European institutions.