The science behind tomorrow's treatments

For decades, Professor Franca Ronchese has been asking some of the biggest questions in immunology: how the immune system recognises and remembers threats, why cancers can evade it, and why it sometimes turns against harmless substances like pollen or food. From early research in Italy, to building the foundations of immunology research in New Zealand, her career has helped shape understanding of how the immune system works, paving the way for current and future treatments.

Today, immune-based treatments are transforming how we target cancer, allergies and inflammatory disease. But every one of these advances traces back to a more fundamental question: how does the immune system decide what to fight?

It’s a question that has shaped Professor Franca Ronchese’s career. For decades, she has been at the forefront of immunology research, seeking to understand how the immune system works, and how that knowledge can be translated into better health outcomes.

This fundamental research maps the immune landscape, each discovery adding another piece and building the understanding behind today’s and tomorrow’s therapies.

“My former boss at NIH once told me, ‘If you don’t understand how it works, you cannot make it better,’” Franca recalls. That lesson that has inspired decades of fundamental immunology research that is ultimately leading to better treatments. 

Originally from Italy, Franca completed her studies at the University of Padova before starting an international research career. She spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, followed by her appointment as an independent scientific member at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland, one of the world’s leading immunology research centres.

In 1994, Franca brought that global expertise to New Zealand, joining her Kiwi husband and fellow immunologist, Professor Graham Le Gros to lead a new era at the Malaghan Institute. As Graham took on the role of director, Franca set about establishing her own research programme.

Together with a small team, Franca and Graham laid the scientific foundations that would shape the institute’s future and contribute to its growing international reputation in immunology research.

At the time, the institute’s research infrastructure was far smaller than the major research organisations Franca had worked in, but she was committed to showing that world-class science could be done in New Zealand.

“I was always told that nobody who goes to New Zealand ever does anything useful,” says Franca. “I think it depends on the kind of person you are. You can either listen to that, or you can say, ‘I’ll show you.’

“I was spoilt,” she adds. “I had been used to big, well-funded research organisations. And here, Graham and I knew it was going to be something to build from the ground up.”

Much of Franca’s work has focused on understanding how the immune system interprets danger.

“My former boss at NIH once told me, ‘If you don’t understand how it works, you cannot make it better.’” 

Dendritic cells, often described as the immune system’s sentinels, have been central to this research. Among the first cells to encounter anything entering the body — whether an infection, a tumour, or something harmless like pollen — their role is to interpret what they find and guide how the immune system should respond.

Franca’s research has helped show that these early decisions are critical. Rather than simply reacting, the immune system is instructed from the very beginning. Those initial signals help determine whether the body mounts a protective response, attacks cancer cells, or develops an allergic reaction.

This shifted how scientists thought about immunity, showing that immune cell responses are shaped at the very first point of contact.

That insight has been instrumental in cancer research. By understanding how immune responses are initiated, scientists can better harness them to recognise and destroy tumour cells. This is the fundamental knowledge inspiring many modern immunotherapies, which aim to train the immune system to do what it is naturally capable of doing, but more effectively.

While the applications of immunology are now visible in treatments for disease, Franca is quick to emphasise that none of these advances would exist without decades of foundational research. 

Modern cancer immunotherapies such as CAR-T cell therapy rely on a deep understanding of how immune cells are activated, regulated and directed. Research into dendritic cells and T-cell activation has helped define the biological ‘rules’ that engineered immune cells must follow, shaping how these therapies are translated into clinical trials.

“It goes to show that you have to learn the basic things to do the extraordinary things,” Franca says. “If you never start small, you will never finish.”

Franca’s research spans multiple areas of immunology, but she sees the immune system as a connected network rather than isolated pathways. The same pathways that fight off cancer cells can also play a role in allergic disease or inflammation. Understanding these shared pathways allows insights in one area to inform another, gradually building a more complete picture of immune function.

“Everything depends on our understanding of science. If you don’t understand science, you don’t understand nutrition, you don’t understand how to look after your health. Science is not just for the lab - science is for life.”

But the immune system does not always get it right.

“In many diseases, it’s not something wrong with the immune system itself, but rather it reacting to the wrong thing, or not reacting when it should,” she explains. “If the immune system reacted correctly, then we wouldn’t have disease. So, as an immunologist, I think I can do something about it.”

Alongside cancer, Franca has spent decades investigating allergic disease, asking why the immune system sometimes reacts to things that are harmless. Her research explores the earliest stages of the allergic response, particularly in tissues such as the skin and airways, where many allergies begin. By understanding these early signals, her team is working towards a new goal: preventing disease before it develops, rather than simply treating symptoms.

From uncovering how immune cells first interpret danger to understanding how those same processes can be misdirected in disease, Franca’s work consistently returns to one principle: fundamental understanding comes first.

Her perspective is shaped by experiencing how small discoveries can accumulate into major advances in medicine. For her, the value of this work lies not only in where it leads, but in the foundation it creates for the innovation that follows.

The importance of this work goes far beyond the lab. “Everything depends on our understanding of science,” she says. “If you don’t understand science, you don’t understand nutrition, you don’t understand how to look after your health. Science is not just for the lab — science is for life.”