Anna Kajaste-Rudnitski is a Group Leader at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget), OSR, in Milan. Merging her background in innate immunity and virology with acquired competences in gene therapy, Dr. Kajaste-Rudnitski’s team studies the molecular mechanisms of host-vector interplay and innate immunity in the context gene therapy applications and autoinflammatory diseases. Their long-term goal is to provide insight into how pathogen recognition and consequent innate immune signaling may affect efficacy and safety of gene therapy approaches in clinically relevant target cells as well as to shed light on how these same pathways may contribute to autoimmune and inflammatory pathologies. Before joining SR-TIGET, Dr. Kajaste-Rudnitski obtained her PhD at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France and did her postdoctoral studies at the San Raffaele scientific Institute in Milan, Italy. Dr. Kajaste-Rudnitski currently holds an ERC Consolidator Grant and received the Outstanding New Investigator Award from the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy in 2019.