R. Mallone received his MD PhD degree from the University of Turin, Italy. After a Postdoc with Jerry Nepom at the Benaroya Institute in Seattle, he moved to Paris where he is currently Professor of Immunology at Université Paris Cité, Diabetologist at the Cochin Hospital and leads a research team at the INSERM Cochin Institute. He is also director of a satellite research lab at the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute in Indianapolis. His research spans from preclinical studies with human samples and mouse models to clinical trials. It focuses on autoimmune T cells and the understanding of type 1 diabetes mechanisms in order to develop T-cell-based biomarkers and therapeutics.
Major contributions to the field include the demonstration of the role of CD8+ T cells in beta-cell autoimmunity, the description of the antigen display (immunopeptidome) of human beta cells, the development of T-cell assays to clarify disease mechanisms and therapeutic modifications, and the exploration of perinatal vaccination strategies. More recently, he described a universal state of ‘benign’ islet autoimmunity imprinted in the thymus and the antiviral T-cell responses mounted against Coxsackieviruses.