Professor Rullo obtained scientific training and experience in several aspects of organic synthesis and carbohydrate chemistry, physical biochemistry, and immunology. After obtaining an undergraduate in Biochemistry from McMaster University, he engaged in structural carbohydrate chemistry and polysaccharide vaccine development with Dr. Mario A. Monteiro during his master’s studies. As a doctoral student under the supervision of Dr. Mark Nitz at the University of Toronto, he developed fluorescent chemical probes of complex glycosaminoglycan binding interactions, in addition to new bio-orthogonal affinity labelling strategies. Dr. Rullo conducted his postdoctoral research in Dr. David A. Spiegel’s laboratory at Yale University working to develop new small molecule based anti-cancer immunotherapeutic approaches. His research yielded the discovery of first in class antibody recruiting molecules capable of targeting highly metastatic cancers in vivo. His laboratory is currently initiating three platforms engaging both basic molecular science and translational cancer therapeutic research on the interface of chemistry and tumor immunology. These platforms are focused on the development of new synthetic molecule based tumor targeting strategies to mediate the host immune recognition of cancer.
