Francesco Marangoni

Title(s)Assistant Professor, Physiology and Biophysics
SchoolSchool of Medicine
Address1001 Health Sciences Road
Irvine CA 92697-3950
Phone(949) 824-8329
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0002-2490-849X Additional info
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    Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston08/2019Immunology, intravital imaging
    Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milano, ItalyPhD11/2007Immunology, gene therapy
    University of Torino, Torino, ItalyMSc03/2003Bioinformatics
    University of Bologna, Bologna, ItalyMSc03/2001Medical Biotechnology

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    I am an immunologist with 23 years of research experience, and also hold a degree in bioinformatics. I investigate the mechanisms regulating adaptive immune responses as well as the basis for their inappropriate function in autoimmune diseases and cancer.
    My area of excellence is investigation of the mechanisms that regulate the immune response. During my graduate studies with Prof. Roncarolo (San Raffaele - Milano) I studied T cell dysfunction in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and its correction after lentiviral vector-mediated gene therapy, generating key data in support of a clinical trial that so far has cured 17 children. My post-doctoral work with Thorsten Mempel (Massachusetts General Hospital) revolves around the question of how interactions between T and antigen-presenting cells in cancer drives its rejection or progression. I approached this question by directly visualizing NFAT signaling within cancer-associated T cells using multiphoton intravital microscopy (MP-IVM). I demonstrated that NFAT activity persisting beyond the duration of interactions with APC promotes T cell tolerance in CD8+ T cells, yet surprisingly boost the function of T regulatory cells within the tumor tissue. The mechanisms driving these divergent functions downstream comparable dynamics of activation will be a fertile area of investigation.
    I published 34 manuscripts in journals such as Immunity, Cancer Cell, Cell, Science and Nature, 8 as lead and 5 as corresponding author. My studies have also been vital in implementing one clinical trial for Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. I trained 19 lab members, 17 of whom made important scientific contributions to my projects and are co-authors of my manuscripts. All my current graduate students received very competitive funding (including one NIH F31, and two NSF-GRFP).
    I have established my independent lab at the end of 2019. We aim to study the innate and adaptive immune mechanisms promoting tolerance to cancer. The focus of the “innate immunity” branch of my lab is to investigate how fully differentiated macrophages dynamically switch in vivo from promoting to opposing inflammation and vice versa, with the ultimate goal of instructing functions that ameliorate the outcome of neoplastic diseases. This approach holds so much promise that its achievement has been defined the “Holy Grail” of macrophage therapeutic targeting (Sica J Clin Invest 2012). I plan to systematically address this scientific problem using novel transgenic mice to map the functional fate of pro-inflammatory macrophages, in combination with intravital microscopy. The “adaptive immunity” branch of my lab studies the effects of checkpoint blockade immunotherapy on T regulatory cells (Tregs). We found that CTLA-4 blockade leads to the accumulation of tumor-associated Tregs, in turn worsening the therapeutic outcome (Marangoni Cell 2021). More recently, my group found that PD-1 immunotherapy increases the abundance of Tregs in the melanoma microenvironment because of a previously unrecognized “help” by IL-2-producing CD8 T cells (Geels et al., Cancer Cell 2024). The translation of the basic concepts we identified to anti-tumor therapies will be a crucial focus for the future.

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    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
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    1. Protocol to quantify the activation dynamics of tumor-associated T cells in mice by functional intravital microscopy. STAR Protoc. 2024 Sep 20; 5(4):103310. Geels SN, Murat C, Moshensky A, Othy S, Marangoni F. PMID: 39306849; PMCID: PMC11459072.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    
    2. Interruption of the intratumor CD8+ T cell:Treg crosstalk improves the efficacy of PD-1 immunotherapy. Cancer Cell. 2024 Jun 10; 42(6):1051-1066.e7. Geels SN, Moshensky A, Sousa RS, Murat C, Bustos MA, Walker BL, Singh R, Harbour SN, Gutierrez G, Hwang M, Mempel TR, Weaver CT, Nie Q, Hoon DSB, Ganesan AK, Othy S, Marangoni F. PMID: 38861924; PMCID: PMC11285091.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    3. Circadian control of tumor immunosuppression affects efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade. Nat Immunol. 2024 Jul; 25(7):1257-1269. Fortin BM, Pfeiffer SM, Insua-Rodríguez J, Alshetaiwi H, Moshensky A, Song WA, Mahieu AL, Chun SK, Lewis AN, Hsu A, Adam I, Eng OS, Pannunzio NR, Seldin MM, Marazzi I, Marangoni F, Lawson DA, Kessenbrock K, Masri S. PMID: 38806707; PMCID: PMC11374317.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    4. Cyclodextrin metal-organic framework-based protein biocomposites. Biomater Sci. 2022 Nov 22; 10(23):6749-6754. Di Palma G, Geels S, Carpenter BP, Talosig RA, Chen C, Marangoni F, Patterson JP. PMID: 36286095; PMCID: PMC9717710.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    
    5. CXCR6 positions cytotoxic T cells to receive critical survival signals in the tumor microenvironment. Cell. 2021 08 19; 184(17):4512-4530.e22. Di Pilato M, Kfuri-Rubens R, Pruessmann JN, Ozga AJ, Messemaker M, Cadilha BL, Sivakumar R, Cianciaruso C, Warner RD, Marangoni F, Carrizosa E, Lesch S, Billingsley J, Perez-Ramos D, Zavala F, Rheinbay E, Luster AD, Gerner MY, Kobold S, Pittet MJ, Mempel TR. PMID: 34343496; PMCID: PMC8719451.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 158     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    6. Piezo1 channels restrain regulatory T cells but are dispensable for effector CD4+ T cell responses. Sci Adv. 2021 07; 7(28). Jairaman A, Othy S, Dynes JL, Yeromin AV, Zavala A, Greenberg ML, Nourse JL, Holt JR, Cahalan SM, Marangoni F, Parker I, Pathak MM, Cahalan MD. PMID: 34233878; PMCID: PMC8262815.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 36     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    7. Expansion of tumor-associated Treg cells upon disruption of a CTLA-4-dependent feedback loop. Cell. 2021 07 22; 184(15):3998-4015.e19. Marangoni F, Zhakyp A, Corsini M, Geels SN, Carrizosa E, Thelen M, Mani V, Prüßmann JN, Warner RD, Ozga AJ, Di Pilato M, Othy S, Mempel TR. PMID: 34157302; PMCID: PMC8664158.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 70     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    8. Inhibition of CDK4/6 Promotes CD8 T-cell Memory Formation. Cancer Discov. 2021 10; 11(10):2564-2581. Heckler M, Ali LR, Clancy-Thompson E, Qiang L, Ventre KS, Lenehan P, Roehle K, Luoma A, Boelaars K, Peters V, McCreary J, Boschert T, Wang ES, Suo S, Marangoni F, Mempel TR, Long HW, Wucherpfennig KW, Dougan M, Gray NS, Yuan GC, Goel S, Tolaney SM, Dougan SK. PMID: 33941591; PMCID: PMC8487897.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 49     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    9. Gene therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome: History, new vectors, future directions. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 08; 146(2):262-265. Ferrua F, Marangoni F, Aiuti A, Roncarolo MG. PMID: 32623069; PMCID: PMC7453879.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 16     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    10. Migratory DCs activate TGF-β to precondition naïve CD8+ T cells for tissue-resident memory fate. Science. 2019 10 11; 366(6462). Mani V, Bromley SK, Äijö T, Mora-Buch R, Carrizosa E, Warner RD, Hamze M, Sen DR, Chasse AY, Lorant A, Griffith JW, Rahimi RA, McEntee CP, Jeffrey KL, Marangoni F, Travis MA, Lacy-Hulbert A, Luster AD, Mempel TR. PMID: 31601741; PMCID: PMC6939608.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 91     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    11. Stromal Microenvironment Shapes the Intratumoral Architecture of Pancreatic Cancer. Cell. 2019 06 27; 178(1):160-175.e27. Ligorio M, Sil S, Malagon-Lopez J, Nieman LT, Misale S, Di Pilato M, Ebright RY, Karabacak MN, Kulkarni AS, Liu A, Vincent Jordan N, Franses JW, Philipp J, Kreuzer J, Desai N, Arora KS, Rajurkar M, Horwitz E, Neyaz A, Tai E, Magnus NKC, Vo KD, Yashaswini CN, Marangoni F, Boukhali M, Fatherree JP, Damon LJ, Xega K, Desai R, Choz M, Bersani F, Langenbucher A, Thapar V, Morris R, Wellner UF, Schilling O, Lawrence MS, Liss AS, Rivera MN, Deshpande V, Benes CH, Maheswaran S, Haber DA, Fernandez-Del-Castillo C, Ferrone CR, Haas W, Aryee MJ, Ting DT. PMID: 31155233; PMCID: PMC6697165.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 248     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    12. Targeting the CBM complex causes Treg cells to prime tumours for immune checkpoint therapy. Nature. 2019 06; 570(7759):112-116. Di Pilato M, Kim EY, Cadilha BL, Prüßmann JN, Nasrallah MN, Seruggia D, Usmani SM, Misale S, Zappulli V, Carrizosa E, Mani V, Ligorio M, Warner RD, Medoff BD, Marangoni F, Villani AC, Mempel TR. PMID: 31092922; PMCID: PMC6656391.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 101     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    13. Guidance factors orchestrating regulatory T cell positioning in tissues during development, homeostasis, and response. Immunol Rev. 2019 05; 289(1):129-141. Mempel TR, Marangoni F. PMID: 30977195; PMCID: PMC6499397.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 13     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    14. Leukocyte Tracking Database, a collection of immune cell tracks from intravital 2-photon microscopy videos. Sci Data. 2018 07 17; 5:180129. Pizzagalli DU, Farsakoglu Y, Palomino-Segura M, Palladino E, Sintes J, Marangoni F, Mempel TR, Koh WH, Murooka TT, Thelen F, Stein JV, Pozzi G, Thelen M, Krause R, Gonzalez SF. PMID: 30015806; PMCID: PMC6049032.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    15. Tumor Tolerance-Promoting Function of Regulatory T Cells Is Optimized by CD28, but Strictly Dependent on Calcineurin. J Immunol. 2018 05 15; 200(10):3647-3661. Marangoni F, Zhang R, Mani V, Thelen M, Ali Akbar NJ, Warner RD, Äijö T, Zappulli V, Martinez GJ, Turka LA, Mempel TR. PMID: 29661826; PMCID: PMC5940497.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 16     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    16. Autonomous role of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome platelet deficiency in inducing autoimmunity and inflammation. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018 10; 142(4):1272-1284. Sereni L, Castiello MC, Marangoni F, Anselmo A, di Silvestre D, Motta S, Draghici E, Mantero S, Thrasher AJ, Giliani S, Aiuti A, Mauri P, Notarangelo LD, Bosticardo M, Villa A. PMID: 29421274; PMCID: PMC6078823.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 16     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    17. B Cells Drive Autoimmunity in Mice with CD28-Deficient Regulatory T Cells. J Immunol. 2017 12 15; 199(12):3972-3980. Zhang R, Sage PT, Finn K, Huynh A, Blazar BR, Marangoni F, Mempel TR, Sharpe AH, Turka LA. PMID: 29093061; PMCID: PMC5716898.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 12     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    18. The cell division control protein 42-Src family kinase-neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein pathway regulates human proplatelet formation. J Thromb Haemost. 2016 12; 14(12):2524-2535. Palazzo A, Bluteau O, Messaoudi K, Marangoni F, Chang Y, Souquere S, Pierron G, Lapierre V, Zheng Y, Vainchenker W, Raslova H, Debili N. PMID: 27685868.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    19. The transcription factor NFAT promotes exhaustion of activated CD8⁺ T cells. Immunity. 2015 Feb 17; 42(2):265-278. Martinez GJ, Pereira RM, Äijö T, Kim EY, Marangoni F, Pipkin ME, Togher S, Heissmeyer V, Zhang YC, Crotty S, Lamperti ED, Ansel KM, Mempel TR, Lähdesmäki H, Hogan PG, Rao A. PMID: 25680272; PMCID: PMC4346317.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 401     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    20. Dynamic Treg interactions with intratumoral APCs promote local CTL dysfunction. J Clin Invest. 2014 Jun; 124(6):2425-40. Bauer CA, Kim EY, Marangoni F, Carrizosa E, Claudio NM, Mempel TR. PMID: 24812664; PMCID: PMC4089459.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 125     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    21. The transcription factor NFAT exhibits signal memory during serial T cell interactions with antigen-presenting cells. Immunity. 2013 Feb 21; 38(2):237-49. Marangoni F, Murooka TT, Manzo T, Kim EY, Carrizosa E, Elpek NM, Mempel TR. PMID: 23313588; PMCID: PMC3582823.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 93     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    22. HIV-infected T cells are migratory vehicles for viral dissemination. Nature. 2012 Oct 11; 490(7419):283-7. Murooka TT, Deruaz M, Marangoni F, Vrbanac VD, Seung E, von Andrian UH, Tager AM, Luster AD, Mempel TR. PMID: 22854780; PMCID: PMC3470742.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 206     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    23. Revertant T lymphocytes in a patient with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome: analysis of function and distribution in lymphoid organs. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Feb; 125(2):439-448.e8. Trifari S, Scaramuzza S, Catucci M, Ponzoni M, Mollica L, Chiesa R, Cattaneo F, Lafouresse F, Calvez R, Vermi W, Medicina D, Castiello MC, Marangoni F, Bosticardo M, Doglioni C, Caniglia M, Aiuti A, Villa A, Roncarolo MG, Dupré L. PMID: 20159256.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 18     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    24. Recent advances in understanding the pathophysiology of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. Blood. 2009 Jun 18; 113(25):6288-95. Bosticardo M, Marangoni F, Aiuti A, Villa A, Grazia Roncarolo M. PMID: 19351959.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 91     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    25. The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein is required for iNKT cell maturation and function. J Exp Med. 2009 Apr 13; 206(4):735-42. Locci M, Draghici E, Marangoni F, Bosticardo M, Catucci M, Aiuti A, Cancrini C, Marodi L, Espanol T, Bredius RG, Thrasher AJ, Schulz A, Litzman J, Roncarolo MG, Casorati G, Dellabona P, Villa A. PMID: 19307326; PMCID: PMC2715111.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 25     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    26. Evidence for long-term efficacy and safety of gene therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome in preclinical models. Mol Ther. 2009 06; 17(6):1073-82. Marangoni F, Bosticardo M, Charrier S, Draghici E, Locci M, Scaramuzza S, Panaroni C, Ponzoni M, Sanvito F, Doglioni C, Liabeuf M, Gjata B, Montus M, Siminovitch K, Aiuti A, Naldini L, Dupré L, Roncarolo MG, Galy A, Villa A. PMID: 19259069; PMCID: PMC2835187.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 32     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    27. CD44 keeps tumor killers polarized. Immunity. 2008 Dec 19; 29(6):843-5. Mempel TR, Marangoni F. PMID: 19100697.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    28. Current understanding of the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and prospects for gene therapy. Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2007 Mar; 3(2):205-15. Trifari S, Marangoni F, Scaramuzza S, Aiuti A, Roncarolo MG, Dupré L. PMID: 20477109.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    
    29. WASP regulates suppressor activity of human and murine CD4(+)CD25(+)FOXP3(+) natural regulatory T cells. J Exp Med. 2007 Feb 19; 204(2):369-80. Marangoni F, Trifari S, Scaramuzza S, Panaroni C, Martino S, Notarangelo LD, Baz Z, Metin A, Cattaneo F, Villa A, Aiuti A, Battaglia M, Roncarolo MG, Dupré L. PMID: 17296785; PMCID: PMC2118740.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 79     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    30. Defective Th1 cytokine gene transcription in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome patients. J Immunol. 2006 Nov 15; 177(10):7451-61. Trifari S, Sitia G, Aiuti A, Scaramuzza S, Marangoni F, Guidotti LG, Martino S, Saracco P, Notarangelo LD, Roncarolo MG, Dupré L. PMID: 17082665.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 53     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    31. Efficacy of gene therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome using a WAS promoter/cDNA-containing lentiviral vector and nonlethal irradiation. Hum Gene Ther. 2006 Mar; 17(3):303-13. Dupré L, Marangoni F, Scaramuzza S, Trifari S, Hernández RJ, Aiuti A, Naldini L, Roncarolo MG. PMID: 16544979.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 29     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    32. Lentiviral vector-mediated gene transfer in T cells from Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome patients leads to functional correction. Mol Ther. 2004 Nov; 10(5):903-15. Dupré L, Trifari S, Follenzi A, Marangoni F, Lain de Lera T, Bernad A, Martino S, Tsuchiya S, Bordignon C, Naldini L, Aiuti A, Roncarolo MG. PMID: 15509508.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 30     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    33. Prevention of HER-2/neu transgenic mammary carcinoma by tamoxifen plus interleukin 12. Int J Cancer. 2003 Jun 20; 105(3):384-9. Nanni P, Nicoletti G, De Giovanni C, Landuzzi L, Di Carlo E, Iezzi M, Ricci C, Astolfi A, Croci S, Marangoni F, Musiani P, Forni G, Lollini PL. PMID: 12704673.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 10     Fields:    Translation:Animals
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