Professor Silvia Bulfone-Paus - personal details

Silvia Bulfone-Paus is an Italian immunologist who studied Medicine at Turin University where she graduated in 1989. She went on to study Genetics at Yale University (PhD: 1994). Silvia’s first academic appointment was at the Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Immunology, in 1994 as a senior scientist. Here, she became Deputy Director in 1996 and Assistant Professor in 1999. Since 2000 she was appointed Full Professor at the University of Lübeck and Director of the Department of Immunology and Cell Biology at the Research Centre Borstel. From 2006-2008, she served as Managing Director of the Centre.

She sits on a number of scientific boards in Germany and reviews for the major immunology journals. She spends 20% of her time at the University of Manchester and 80% at the Research Centre Borstel/University of Lübeck.

Silvia’s research focuses on the biology of cytokines (with emphasis on IL-15) and on role of mast cells in inflammatory processes such as allergy and infection. Currently, she is most interested in dissecting the role of mast cells in regulating interactions between innate and acquired immunity.