Rate My Professor Ilaria Elia

Elia's research centers on the metabolic cross-talk between tumor cells and immune cells, particularly CD8+ T cells, within the tumor microenvironment. Her lab explores how local nutrient microenvironments drive metabolic reprogramming, T cell exhaustion, and immunotherapy resistance in primary tumors and metastases, including projects on compartmentalized NAD+ metabolism, metabolite competition in melanoma-derived lung and liver metastases, and strategies to reprogram exhausted T cells via metabolic nodes. She has published seminal works such as 'Breast cancer cells rely on environmental pyruvate to shape the metastatic niche' (Nature, 2019), 'Tumor cells dictate anti-tumor immune responses by altering pyruvate utilization and succinate signaling in CD8+ T cells' (Cell Metabolism, 2022), 'Formate supplementation enhances anti-tumor CD8+ T cell fitness and efficacy of PD-1 blockade' (Cancer Discovery, 2023), and 'The metabolic cross-talk between cancer and T cells' (Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2023). Elia has garnered major awards including the ERC Starting Grant for the SpaceMet project investigating spatial heterogeneity of tumor and CD8+ T cell metabolism in liver metastasis (2025), the FEBS Excellence Award (2022), the Beug Foundation Metastasis Prize (2023), EMBO and CRI fellowships, and various travel grants.