Giuseppe Sautto Laboratory

Research

Sautto Lab Culture

Lab culture statement: Our laboratory focuses on creating and maintaining an equitable and inclusive lab environment. The foundation of this culture is to establish internal and external collaborations: that means a collaborative culture inside and outside the lab and the institute. 

Research Overview

The Sautto Lab focuses on generating molecules, particularly monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), that target infectious pathogens and some cancer types. We strive to generate molecules with multiple therapeutic applications:  

1. As Next-Generation Vaccines that prophylactically prevent individuals from contracting an infection or disease 
2. As Immunotherapies that directly neutralize threats and treat individuals who have already contracted a disease

We also work to engineer improvements in existing mAbs, by increasing binding capacity or by conferring gain-of-function effects. 

Monoclonal Antibodies

One of our main areas of focus has been generating mAbs to target highly variable pathogens. We are developing treatments for influenza virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), SARS-CoV-2, RSV and many opportunistic fungal infections using our mAb development pipeline, depicted below. 

 

Recombinant Proteins and the Next-generation Influenza Vaccine

We have been working to develop recombinant proteins that can act as a next-generation influenza vaccine and target multiple virus strains. In 2021 we developed a pipeline to produce and purify recombinant proteins produced in mammalian cell lines through either transient transfection or generation of stable cell lines from plasmid creation through the isolation step via Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography (IMAC). Collectively, the establishment of this pipeline has facilitated large-scale production of recombinant influenza virus proteins of high purity and with consistent yields, including glycosylation patterns that are very similar to proteins produced in a human host. You can read the paper here! 

Pictured: Schematic of our recombinant influenza glycoproteins. Ecker et al., 2021. Vaccines   

 

Pictured: The Sautto Lab “Recombinant Protein Factory”, housed in the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research and Innovation Center 

Testimonials from my former mentees and coworkers

Excerpts taken from my LinkedIn page:

“Today’s scientist must be perseverant, insightful and socially skilled, to build strong and long-lasting collaborations. Giuseppe is all three, being able to generate data at the bench, manage and supervise junior staff, while establishing external collaborations and securing start-up funding for his research.” - Rodrigo Abreu, 15 October 2020. Worked together in the University of Georgia Center for Vaccines & Immunology from 2018 - 2020

“In the year I was tutored by Dr. Sautto I was taught both basic and advanced laboratory techniques; in addition, he helped my improving in terms of critical thinking and science writing. Dr. Sautto tends to create a friendly working environment around him, and perfectly handles stress and multi-tasking... It is both for his personality and scientific proficiency that Dr. Sautto and I have remained in touch after the completion of my internship.”  - Giacomo Gorini, 15 June 2016. Mentored directly by Dr. Sautto in Dr. Clementi’s and Burioni’s laboratory at San Raffaele Research institute in 2012-2013.

“Giuseppe has constantly and patiently followed my work-project... He taught me several molecular techniques and he followed me during the writing of the experimental thesis. In my opinion he is an excellent scientist with strong organizational skills and communication skills. He is also a very nice and generous person. Even now, he is always ready to give me advice and tips.” - Giovanni Pipitone, Co-mentored by Dr. Sautto in the Microbiology and Virology laboratory of "Università Vita-Salute S.Raffaele" from 2012 to 2014. 

Sautto Lab Events

Conferences, Event Participations and Sautto Lab Presentations

• July 24-27, 2022: Annual Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) Meeting, Hyatt Regency Bethesda, MD
• Sep 26-29, 2022: OPTIONS XI for the Control of Influenza meeting in Belfast, UK.
• March 16-17, 2023: Second annual South Florida Translational Research Symposium. ​​Florida International University, Center for Translational Science, Port St. Lucie, FL
• Feb 28 - March 3, 2023: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Conference Center, Seattle, WA
  • Drivers of individual variation in influenza vaccine response and protection from infection (DIVERsity) Meeting
  • ​​Correlates of Protection for Next Generation Influenza Vaccines: ‘Lessons Learned from the COVID Pandemic​'
• Aug 6-9, 2023: Annual Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) Meeting, Hilton West Palm Beach, FL

We did a photoshoot in June of 2023! Take a look inside our lab:

 Dr. Giuseppe Sautto speaking with Yailin Campos (lab technologist) and Dr. Gabriel Costa (postdoctoral fellow). 

Yailin Campos (Lab technologist in the Sautto lab): “…I was looking at the Florida Research and Innovation Center from a window of the Tradition Hospital and dreaming about working there one day”    

Monthly Highlights

Monthly highlights from the Sautto Lab:

• July 2022: The Sautto lab establishes at the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research & Innovation Center
• Sep 2022: New publication in Vaccines! "Kinetic of the Antibody Response Following Addavax- Adjuvanted Immunization with Recombinant Influenza Antigens"
• Dec 2022: Yailin Campos Mota joins the Sautto Lab. Welcome onboard Yailin!
• Feb 2023: New publication in Cell Reports! "Functional HIV-1/HCV cross-reactive antibodies isolated from a chronically co-infected donor"
• April 2023: The Sautto Lab receives funding in collaboration with MetCure Therapeutics LLC, on "Small-molecule therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer".
• May 2023:
  • Dr. Gabriel Costa joins the Sautto Lab. Welcome onboard Gabriel!
  • New publication in Communications Biology! "Structural insights into the broad protection against H1 influenza viruses by a computationally optimized hemagglutinin vaccine"
• June 2023:
  
  • The Sautto Lab receives the 2023 Research Accelerator Award for the project "Development of a broadly reactive hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccination"
  • Dr. Sautto receives Adjunct Faculty Appointment at Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Department of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology
• July 2023: New publication in Frontiers Tropical Diseases by Dr. Costa: "Malaria mitochondrial diagnosis: Challenges and Pitfalls"
• Aug 2023: Dr. Sautto was admitted to the Compass Leadership and Management Training and Mentoring Program, coordinated by the School of Medicine of the Washington University in St. Louis and supported by the NIGMS of NIH
• Sep 2023: The Sautto Lab was awarded a research agreement in collaboration with Pomona Ricerca S.r.l. which will study the preclinical characterization of the immune response after immunization with two anti-idiotype monoclonal antibodies

Selected Publications

View publications for Giuseppe Sautto, PhD, MBA
(Disclaimer: This search is powered by PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed is a third-party website with no affiliation with Cleveland Clinic.)

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