Alessandro Sette will receive the AAI-Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research for his work on how the immune system fights infections and more.
La Jolla Institute for Immunology professor Alessandro Sette will receive the prestigious AAI-Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research for his research into the human immune system.
The award recognizes an individual who has made “significant contributions to the understanding of immune processes underlying human disease pathogenesis, prevention or therapy,” according to AAI.
Sette will receive a $5,000 cash award and will present his research in an award lecture after the presentation at Immunology2026, the 109th annual AAI meeting in April in Boston.
Sette said in a press release he is honored to receive the Steinman Award.
“This reflects on our whole institute,” he said. “The research conducted at La Jolla Institute has a profound impact on human immunology.”
Sette is a renowned expert on human T cells, the immune cells that adapt to recognize and fight infections from viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens. Sette’s award-winning work has shown how T cells help prevent severe disease, uncovering the roles of T cells in severe allergies and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and ALS.
In 2022, Sette and his LJI colleagues published the first head-to-head comparison of four COVID-19 vaccine approaches.
Sette’s research extends beyond infectious diseases: In 2021, he and LJI professor Bjoern Peters, PhD, launched the Cancer Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (CEDAR), funded by the National Cancer Institute, for scientists to share data and access analysis tools to better understand how human T cells target and destroy cancers.
