Salvatore Valitutti, M.D., former full professor of immunology at the University of Toulouse, France is Director of Research at INSERM. He has been working for more than twenty years on T lymphocyte activation by antigenic determinants displayed on antigen presenting cell (APC) surface and has acquired uncommon expertise on in vitro and in tissue study of human primary immune cells. Dr. Valitutti has been member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland where he contributed to the understanding of basic mechanisms of T lymphocyte activation. More recently, in Lausanne (Switzerland) and in Toulouse (France), Dr. Valitutti has contributed to define the structure, dynamics and function of immunological synapses, formed by both helper and cytotoxic T cells. His research team develops, at the INSERM U1043 in Toulouse, a multi-disciplinary research program in which, biologists in collaboration with clinicians, physicists and mathematicians, investigate different aspects of the intercellular communication occurring at immunological synapses in human health and disease.