Rate My Professor David Pinato

Professor David J. Pinato is a Clinical Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics in the Department of Surgery and Cancer within Imperial College London's Faculty of Medicine. He also holds the position of Director of Developmental Therapeutics and serves as a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Pinato earned his MD with highest honours from the University of Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro" in Novara, Italy. He further obtained a Masters of Research (MRes) in translational medicine and a PhD in clinical and experimental medicine. Elected as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP, UK) in 2014, his clinical training encompassed institutions in Zürich, Vienna, and Ioannina, core medical training in London hospitals, and specialist medical oncology training through the Royal Marsden Hospital rotation. Joining Imperial College in April 2015 via an NIHR-funded Clinical Lectureship, he progressed to a Wellcome Trust-funded Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2018, centered on advancing immunotherapy for liver cancer.

Pinato leads a translational research program dedicated to the early clinical implementation of novel experimental anticancer therapies, with a strong emphasis on anti-cancer immunotherapy and immune-phenotyping of malignancies. His work has pioneered first-in-class studies of immune checkpoint inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary liver tumor, ranking fifth in global incidence and third in mortality. Supported by international collaborations, his studies have qualified novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers in HCC, published in premier journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, and Hepatology. His impactful research has garnered the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Award in 2016, 2017, and 2019, a joint ASCO and Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Merit Award in 2019, the ASCO Global Oncology Young Investigator Award in 2019 for HIV-associated HCC research, the British Society of Pharmacology Prize in 2018, and the Sylvia Lawler Prize in Oncology from the Royal Society of Medicine in 2016. An international lecturer on molecular oncology and HCC, he reviews for journals such as Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Oncogene, OncoImmunology, and Gut, and for grant bodies including the MRC, Breast Cancer Now, and Cancer Research UK. Earlier fellowships include the European School of Oncology in 2008 and Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar in 2010/2011.