Ignazio Caruana is a young principal investigator at University Children’s Hospital of Würzburg in the Department of Haematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. Since the beginning of his formal studies, Dr. Caruana developed a fascination for translational medicine in the field of oncology and haematology. He received his degree in Biotechnology from the University of Pavia investigating the role of B cell reconstitution and the role of donor/recipient chimerism after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. He completed his PhD and postdoctoral training in the center of cell and gene therapy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston developing new strategies to improve the efficacy and persistence of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells in the setting of solid tumours. In 2015 he moved back to Italy to further implement and translate this technology. At Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, he founded his own group and won various grants including a Start-Up grant of “Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro”. So far, he has been part of the development and management of two clinical trials using CAR T cells for the treatment of refractory and relapsed GD2+ solid tumours and CD19+ malignancies in the paediatric setting.