Marina Cavazzana is a paediatrician, Professor of Haematology since 2000, Director of the Department of Biotherapy at Hospital Necker, University Paris Descartes. She is the Director of the Inserm / Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris GHU Ouest Biotherapy Clinical Investigation Center and leads a research Laboratory at Imagine Institute. She studied medicine in Padua, Italy and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1983, her certification in Paediatrics in 1987 and a PhD in Life Sciences in 1993 (University Paris VII).
Her main research and clinical interests are development of the immune system, genetic diseases of the haematopoietic system and cell and gene therapy. She has initiated several clinical trials based on the use of ex vivo gene modified cells to treat patients with inherited disorders, the preliminary clinical results of which are encouraging. This work was rewarded by the American Society of Hematology (Award on Clinical Research in Gene Therapy in 1999), by the French Academy of Sciences (Special Medical Award in 2000 and Jean-Pierre Lecocq Award on Gene Therapy in 2004). She was awarded the title of Officier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur in 2011, given the Irène Joliot Curie 2012 award “Scientific Women of the Year” (Science Academy and French Ministry of Education and Research). She was also awarded with the French National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and the 2017 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for Clinical Science (American Society of Hematology).