A/Prof Vittorio is an internationally recognised cancer biologist with a strong track record in elucidating the mechanisms of anti-cancer therapeutics in paediatric malignancies. He is a Scientia Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, and Head of the Metal Targeted Therapy & Immunology Laboratory.

He has authored over 110 peer-reviewed publications (top 2% cited scientist worldwide), contributed six book chapters, and holds six patents, with three papers recognised as ISI Highly Cited. In the past five years, he has secured more than $15M in competitive funding for childhood cancer research. His expertise spans cell and molecular biology, immunology, and nanomedicine.

His program is internationally recognised for pioneering discoveries in copper metabolism in cancer. He first demonstrated that neuronal tumour cells accumulate elevated intracellular copper, underpinning novel copper-targeted therapies for neuroblastoma and gliomas. He also discovered that copper regulates tumour immune evasion via PD-L1 (Cancer Research, 2020), establishing a new link between metal homeostasis and immunology. Building on this, his team enhanced anti-GD2 immunotherapy efficacy in neuroblastoma (Nature Communications, 2024), now incorporated into the international BEACON-2 clinical trial, exemplifying successful bench-to-bedside translation.