Research & Expertise
My research expertise has primarily focused on studying cancer biology and its underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis, spanning from solid tumours to haematological malignancies. By using a wide range of in vitro and in vivo models I have led and collaborated in several projects focused on dissecting the relevance of both cellular factors and novel disease-initiating populations.
PhD research topics
After my university education in Italy, I joined the lab of Dr. Michael Milsom at the German Caner Research Center (DKFZ) and the The Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) in Heidelberg, Germany
1) Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN)
Here, I have taken over a challenging project aiming at developing a novel in vivo model of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) to study a rare population of dormant JAK2V617F-mutant hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that can initiate disease and resist to current therapies. By taking advantage of complex animal models, I have performed the first comprehensive characterisation, at the functional and molecular level, of dormant mutant HSCs in the context of MPN; moreover, I have also tested a novel therapy that was able to achieve the simultaneous correction of the disease symptoms while targeting the disease-initiating fraction of MPN HSCs.
Throughout my PhD, my research work has been awarded and selected for oral presentations in multiple prestigious conferences (Have a look at the “Scientific Contributions” section).
Hopefully, these data will somehow help other scientists to develop more precise and better tolerated therapies to definitely cure MPN patients.
2) Collaboration Projects
During my PhD, I also collaborated on other projects focusing on various aspects of hematology, and in particular on hematopietic stem cells. You can find Here these studies.
Master and Bachelor research topics
During my MSc and BSc, I have spent quite some time in the Molecular Pathology Lab of Prof. Ciro Isidoro. There I have mainly focused my research efforts on investigating the tumour suppressive function of autophagy in Ovarian Cancer (OC) by using cancer cell lines. Specifically, I have led and contributed to the following projects.
1) Investigation of anti-tumorigenic properties of autophagy.
In this collaborative project, I performed Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis on OC cell lines to characterise the anti tumour activities of autophagy, particularly in the settings of resistance to platinum therapy and cell migration. The full research results can be found Here.
2) Characterisation of the novel pro-tumorigenic role of NKX3-2 in OC
Starting from pre-existing data available in the lab, I have identified and further characterised the mechanistic role of NKX3-2, a transcription factor poorly studied in cancer, in promoting cancer cell migration via the down regulation of autophagy. By performing gene silencing experiments, I have described the involvement of NKX3-2 in various cellular processes by means of Western blot, immunofluorescence and other in vitro assays.