The Wistar Institute Recruits Dr. Filippo Veglia to the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center

Newswise — PHILADELPHIA—(Jan. 4, 2024)— The Wistar Institute, an international biomedical research leader in cancer, infectious disease, immunology, and vaccine development, is pleased to announce the recruitment of Filippo Veglia, Ph.D., to the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, where he joins Wistar’s Immunology, Microenvironment and Metastasis Program as an Assistant Professor. 

As a researcher who studies glioblastoma, the most lethal form of brain cancer, Dr. Veglia investigates how glioblastoma functions at the foundational level in hopes that he can uncover potential weaknesses that, once identified, could be targeted. Glioblastoma’s lethality comes from its aggression and sheer difficulty to treat; in an organ as fragile as the brain, cancer is even more dangerous, and glioblastoma spreads quickly. But Dr. Veglia’s expertise in myeloid-derived immune cells — cells from bone marrow that perform immune functions — has allowed him to probe the tumor microenvironment of glioblastoma to search for new potential treatment targets. By analyzing how improperly functioning myeloid-derived immune cells enable glioblastoma tumors, Dr. Veglia hopes to find ways of stopping their cancerous influence. His research is at the intersection of cancer metabolism, cancer immunology, and the tumor microenvironment of glioblastoma. 

“We’re happy to welcome Filippo to Wistar’s faculty, where he will contribute his expertise in tumor immunology to a thriving culture of immunology research,” says Dario Altieri, M.D., Wistar president and CEO, director of the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, and the Robert and Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. 

“Many scientists at Wistar investigate the tumor microenvironment and immune cell dysregulation as part of their research, and Filippo stands to contribute his perspectives from his work in glioblastoma. In fact, I should say that we’re welcoming Filippo back to Wistar, because he trained here as a staff scientist years ago. We were glad to have him then, and he has become a promising young investigator who is pursuing exciting work that combines epigenetic, metabolic, and immunological approaches to cancer. We’re even more glad to have him now as a faculty member.”