Post Doc
The diagnostic characterization of high-risk breast neoplasms is still suboptimal with a high percentage of patients who may relapse even though they are defined as having limited risk and with limited personalization of initial therapies based on the probability of response to treatments. In this regard, there is great interest in new minimally invasive indicators of therapeutic response and disease recurrence in the context of the so-called liquid biopsy.
The goal of this project is to carry out an evaluation of the information provided by liquid biopsy approaches in breast cancer (circulating cancer cells - CTC - and circulating DNA and RNA) in the diagnosis and early diagnosis of relapses.
PhD student
IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST -Innovative Therapies Development Unit
During my PhD my research activity has been mainly focused on the recovery and the characterization of CTCs obtained from breast cancer patient samples by liquid biopsy. The main project I deal with is the ongoing clinical trial CITUCEL. Moreover, I’m actively involved in case of a patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and breast cancer (BC). Experiments will be performed in vitro using different BC cell lines which will be treated with Ixazomib and Bendamustine alone or in combination at different concentrations and time points, with the aim to determine the best concentration of these drugs associated with each cell line.
We expect to determine if this potential therapeutic strategy, could be effective in the treatment of BC and put in evidence if this effect could be a BC subtype specific.
Visiting student
University of Oxford, CR-UK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology Old Road Campus Research Building
The research focuses on a better understanding of how homologous recombination (HR), the main DNA repair pathway in mammalian cells, helps to prevent genomic instability, the underlying mechanism of many cancers.
The aim of this work is to find new treatments that would selectively kill cancer cells whose ability to repair DNA by homologous recombination has been compromised. This therapeutic strategy could be, in the longer term, a realistic chance of helping cancer prevention and treatment.
Trainee Researcher
IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST - Department of U.O.C Mutagenesis, DNA repair and damage.
In cancer cells an accumulation of mutant p53 levels, a phenomenon that can adversely affect the response of cancer cells to chemotherapy, it is observed.
In my bachelor’s degree I showed that a treatment of two cancer cell lines with Gambogic Acid (GA), a molecule extracted from a resin produced by various plant species of the Garcinia genus, was able to modulate mutant p53 levels and induce autophagy.
Master’s degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Università degli studi di Genova
Final mark: 110/110 cum laude.
Final dissertation: "Induction of autophagy and degradation of mutant p53 in cancer cells".
Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology
Università degli studi di Genova
Final mark: 90/110
Final dissertation: "p53-dependent cytotoxic activity of new molecules and induction of autophagy in cancer cells".
