Chiara Suvieri is a post-doc research fellow at the Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Italy. She graduated cum laude in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at University of Perugia in 2017. She was a post-graduate scholarship holder at the Laboratory of Biotechnology in Urology (University of Perugia) where she was involved in the study of miRNAs as potential diagnostic markers in urological tumors. Then, in 2020, she enrolled in the PhD course in Systems Biology in Immune and Infectious Pathologies at the University of Perugia, during which she spent six months at the ICVS, University of Minho, in Braga (Portugal), where she studied the function and genetic polymorphisms of tryptophan-metabolizing enzymes (IDO1 and IDO2) in tumor and immune pathologies. She obtained her PhD degree in 2024, discussing a thesis about the putative non-enzymatic function of IDO2, paralog of the better-known immunoregulatory enzyme IDO1, in a human NSCLC cell line. For this work published in IJMS in 2023, she was awarded the “Premio Mauro Felli” (CIRIAF, UNIPG) about the impact of environmental pollution on multiple aspects, like oncology. She is a member of SIICA (Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology).

Giada Mondanelli is a researcher at the Section of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia. After graduating with honors in Drug Chemistry and Technology (2012), she was trained for 5 months at the drug-discovery company TES Pharma. In 2015, she obtained a PhD degree in Biology and Experimental Medicine, and during the PhD program, she joined the group of Prof Von Herrath (La Jolla Institute for Immunology, CA, US) for a 5-month internship. She is the author of 50 peer-reviewed articles (2014-2024), H index 23, and 1442 citations (by Scopus). She is a member of SIF (Italian Society of Pharmacology) and SIICA (Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology, and Allergology). Her research activities are oriented in the field of immunopharmacological targets for chronic inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, and, more recently, cancer. She contributed as Principal Investigator to two national projects and as a collaborator in several international research projects. Her achievements have also been recognized by several prizes, including the  "LaboSpace" award (2017), the SIF-Farmindustria award (2019), "Paolo Preziosi" Research Award (2021), the Prix Galien Research Award Italia (2021), the M. Felli Award (2022) and the EWMD-TIWS award (2022).

Ciriana Orabona is an associate professor at the Section of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Italy. She graduated in Drug Chemistry and Technology in 1997 from the University of Perugia, and earned a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine, discussing a thesis on the IDO1 enzyme as a new tolerogenic mechanism in dendritic cells in 2003. She spent the first part (1998–2000) of her Ph.D. training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels, where she acquired great expertise in signal transduction analysis. She is also a member of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD), the Italian Society of Neurosciences (SINS), and the Italian Society of Pharmacology (SIF). Her main research interests include immunopharmacology, immunotherapy, and tryptophan metabolism in the regulation of the immune response in autoimmune, neoplastic, and inflammatory chronic diseases.

Maria Teresa Pallotta is a professor of pharmacology at the Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Italy. She graduated with honors in Drug Chemistry and Technology (2005) and obtained in 2011 the PhD degree in Biology and Experimental Medicine at the University of Perugia. The research carried out during her PhD contributed to identifying that besides its catalytic activity, IDO1 functions as a signaling molecule responsible for inducing long-term tolerance in dendritic cells. The Italian Society of Pharmacology and Farmaindustria awarded her for this publication. She spent the beginning of her post-doctoral experience (2011) at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona (Swiss), where she acquired great expertise in confocal microscopy and FRET.  Since then, she has participated in several national and international grants, including one funded by the European Research Council (DIDO-ERC Advanced Grant ‘Innovative drugs targeting IDO molecular dynamics in autoimmunity and neoplasia’) in which she was involved as the main researcher. Since 2011, she has been a member of the "Italian Society of Pharmacology" (SIF). Her main research interests include immunopharmacology, immunotherapy, and tryptophan metabolism in regulating the immune response in autoimmune, neoplastic, and inflammatory chronic diseases.

Eleonora Panfili is a post-doctoral researcher at the Section of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia. She graduated with honors in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2016 at the University of Perugia and obtained her PhD degree in Systems Biology in Immune and Infectious Pathologies in 2020 at the same university, discussing a thesis on the modulation of the catalytic and signaling activity of the tolerogenic enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) by small molecules. During her PhD program, she carried out a six-month research traineeship in New York at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to integrate her PhD project. She is the author or co-author of 19 publications in international peer-reviewed journals (2019-2024). As suggested by her publications, her research activity is mainly focused on the immunological field, particularly on the characterization of the non-enzymatic function of IDO1, and the analysis of the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of the rare disease Wolfram Syndrome. She is a member of SIF (Italian Society of Pharmacology) and SIICA (Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology, and Allergology), and has attended several national and international conferences, where she has been awarded two Travel Grants by SIICA and the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS).

Sofia Rossini is a post-doctoral researcher at the Section of Pharmacology at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Perugia. She graduated cum laude in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Perugia, and she then spent six months in Paris at the Cordelier Research Center supported by an Erasmus fellowship, working on the characterization of protein-protein interactions between the neonatal Fc receptor and immunoglobulins, resulting in two first-author publications. In 2019, she started her PhD in Systems Biology in Immune and Infectious Pathologies at the University of Perugia and spent four months in Munich at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry to integrate its PhD project. In 2023, she obtained her PhD degree, for which she completed a thesis about the identification of a positive allosteric site of Src kinase modulated by spermidine and its relevance to cancer and immunity. Her current research is mainly focused on the characterization of the non-enzymatic function of IDO1 in tumor cells. Sofia Rossini is also a member of SIF (Italian Society of Pharmacology) and SIICA (Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology), and attended several national and international conferences, such as those organized by SIF, SIICA, ISTRY (International Society for Tryptophan Research) and EATI (European Academy of Tumor Immunology).

Claudia Volpi: Professor of Pharmacology Scopus H-index: 30 (may 2024) e-mail: claudia.volpi@unipg.it Claudia Volpi graduated with honors in Drug Chemistry and Technology (2002) and, in 2006, obtained a PhD degree in Biology and Experimental Medicine at the University of Perugia. She contributed as Principal Investigator to two national projects (PRIN 20155C2PP7 and PRIN20173EAZ2Z), in addition to having participated as a collaborator in several international research projects and as a PI in various projects funded by the University of Perugia and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia. She is the author or co-author of 71 publications in international peer-reviewed journals (May 2024). Her research activity is aimed at investigating and unveiling the role of the catalytic and signaling activity of IDO1 in the regulation of immune responses and deciphering the still-unknown functions of IDO2. Since 2006, she has been a member of the "Italian Society of Pharmacology" (SIF). She has received the following awards:2002: "Premio di Laurea Alessio Trippolini" from Accademia Anatomo-chirurgica, University of Perugia, for best thesis in Molecular Biology;2006-2007: award for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship by Italian Society of Pharmacology (SIF)

Maria Laura Belladonna is a professor of Biology at the University of Perugia, ItalyProf. Belladonna is a biologist with a background in immunopharmacology. After graduating with honors in Drug Chemistry and Technology at the University of Perugia in 1996, she obtained her PhD degree in Experimental Medicine, discussing a thesis on the immunogenicity acquired by drug-treated tumor antigens. After her PhD, she was a research fellow under the supervision of Dr. JC Renauld at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels, where she acquired significant expertise in the production of recombinant heterodimeric cytokines and the analysis of their signaling. Now, her research activity is carried out at the Pharmacology Section of the Department of Medicine and Surgery (University of Perugia, Italy). Her research field is the in vitro study of molecular mechanisms of immunogenic and tolerogenic responses, effects of tolerogenic cytokines, the tolerogenic enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), and tryptophan metabolism in murine experimental models of autoimmune diseases and tumors, tumor biomarkers derived from tryptophan metabolism in human Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), the effects of plant-derived bioactive compounds in the regulation of osteoclastogenesis, and the effects of oxidative stress molecules in bone-damaging diseases. She is a member of the AIBG (Associazione Italiana di Biologia e Genetica) and SIF (Società Italiana Farmacologia) scientific societies.