Galectins as Multifunctional Glyco-Checkpoints: A Sweet Future for Immunotherapy?

Gabriel Rabinovich is Director of the Glycoimmunology Program at the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (IBYME-CONICET) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Senior Group Leader at the CaixaResearch Institute in Barcelona, Spain and Plenary Professor of Immunology at the University of Buenos Aires. He completed his undergraduate and doctoral training at the Faculty of Chemical Sciences, National University of Córdoba, Argentina.

Dr. Rabinovich is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS; 2016), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO, 2021), the Latin American Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Argentine Academy of Sciences, and the Argentine Academy of Exact and Natural Sciences. His work has been recognized with more than 200 awards, including the Hakomori Award (International Glycoconjugate Organization, 2025), the Karl Meyer Award (Society for Glycobiology, USA, 2023), the TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences (Italy 2018), the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bunge & Born Prize in Medical Sciences, the Konex Diamond Prize for the most outstanding scientist of the decade in Argentina (2014–2024), the Mizutani Foundation Award for Glycosciences, and the Bernardo Houssay Award, among others. Dr. Rabinovich has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles, many in leading journals including Cell, Nature, Cancer Cell, Immunity, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, PNAS, and Science Translational Medicine. He has also authored invited reviews in highly influential journals such as Nature Reviews Immunology, Annual Review of Immunology, and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. His work has received more than 51,000 citations, with an h-index of 101 (Google Scholar). He is the inventor of 11 patents filed in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Argentina, and serves as Associate Editor and Editorial Board member for several international journals. Together with his team, Dr. Rabinovich established a novel conceptual framework demonstrating that protein–glycan interactions (glycocheckpoints) can orchestrate immunoregulatory and vascular programs. His work revealed that galectins, a family of soluble β-galactoside-binding proteins, translate glycan-encoded information into regulatory circuits that control inflammation, suppress autoimmune pathology, and enable tumor immune evasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis. These discoveries have opened new therapeutic avenues in cancer, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune diseases.

In 2023, Dr. Rabinovich co-founded Galtec, a biotechnology spin-off dedicated to translating galectin-based discoveries into novel therapeutic strategies. He has supervised or co-supervised 32 PhD students, 28 postdoctoral fellows, and 20 associate researchers, and has delivered more than 450 invited lectures worldwide. He has organized numerous international scientific meetings and training courses and has played a leading role in advancing immunology and glycosciences globally. Dr. Rabinovich has received 12 Doctor Honoris Causa degrees from national and international universities and has served as Visiting Professor at institutions including the University of Maryland, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Institut Jacques Monod/Université de Paris, and the University of Miami. His research has been supported by major international funding agencies, including the Wellcome Trust (UK), the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (USA), the Lounsbery Foundation (USA), the Cancer Research Institute (USA), the Kenneth Rainin Foundation (USA), the Multiple Sclerosis Society (USA), the Mizutani Foundation for Glycosciences (Japan), the Prostate Cancer Foundation (UK), and Argentinean science agencies.