Dr Nicolini received his medical degree from the University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France in 1993 and his certification in haematology the same year, from the University Claude Bernard, Lyon, France. He was co-responsible for the stem cell transplantation unit and the stem cell apheresis unit in the hematology department of Grenoble University Hospital for 3 years. Between 1996-1999 he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Terry Fox Laboratory (Pr Connie J. Eaves/Pr Allen C. Eaves), at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver, BC, Canada, studying i) normal and HbS+ erythropoiesis, ii) retroviral gene transfer in normal and pathological hematopoietic stem cells, iii) Chronic Myeloid Leukemia hematopoiesis in vitro and in vivo in immunodeficient mice. He got his PhD in University Claude Bernard in 2001 and his “habilitation for directing research” the highest degree delivered by French universities, in human biology in 2004, at the same university. He worked as a hospital practitioner in the hematology department of the university hospital of Bordeaux (Pr J. Reiffers) between 1999-2001, mostly focusing on CML, AL, MPNs and autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplant. He became the head, between 2001 and 2017 of a stem cell transplantation & acute leukemia ward in the Hospices Civils de Lyon France and was in charge of the clinical CML and MPNs programs in the hematology department of this institution, and still teaches at the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, for 20 years. He moved in 2017 to the private non-profit cancer center “Centre Léon Bérard” to lead the scientific clinical programs of CML and MPNs within the hematology department. This centre has been labelled as a centre for excellence for CML by the ELN and the iCMLf in 2017. In addition, after serving as the secretary for the French group of CML (Fi-LMC) between 2004 and 2019, he has been elected as chair of the French group of CML in October 2019 and October 2022 and remains. He has lead several CML national academic trials and international industrial trials/observational studies on CML since 2000.
Finally, Dr Nicolini is also a senior scientist in the INSERM research unit 1052 at the “Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, (CRCL)”, in Centre Léon Bérard since 2005, Lyon, where he leads with Dr V. Maguer-Satta and Dr S. Lefort a scientific program of basic scientific research on CML and normal hematopoiesis, mostly concentrated on the role of the hematopoietic niche in CML resistant to TKIs, and maintenance of living Ph+ stem cells.
Dr Nicolini has more than 100 original publications and book chapters in the field of hematology, stem cell transplantation and CML, and is or has been a reviewer several times for >20 peer-reviewed journals in the field of hematology, as well as for EHA, FSH, ESH, ESH/iCMLf, EBMT and ASH meetings.