BIO
I am a research scientist at U.O.C. of Medical Oncology, “Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli”, in Rome. I focused my work on the characterization of the human and mouse models of pancreatic tumors, to define the molecular mechanisms underlying the intrinsic resistance to conventional and targeted therapies.
My laboratory in the last years developed several mouse preneoplastic pancreatic lesion models of pancreatic carcinogenesis in order to obtain molecular profiling of the early step of pancreatic carcinogenesis to improve clinical outcome of patients. I got my PhD working at Department of Experimental Pharmacology of National Cancer Institute “Fondazione Pascale IRCCS” in Naples and post-graduated specialization in clinical pathology and clinical biochemestry at University of Milano. In 2019, I moved to Rome to start my own laboratory at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS.
RESEARCH
Pancreatic cancer is a great challenge that require a special heed. The discovery of the most common genetic alterations as well as the development of precise models of pancreatic cancer have provided insight into the fundamental pathways driving tumor progression from a normal cell to non-invasive precursor lesion and finally to widely metastatic disease, offering new opportunities for identifying the key driver of cancer evolution.
We recently tracked the effects of obesity on the natural evolution of pancreatic cancer recapitulating the progression form early preinvasive lesions to metastatic disease in a syngeneic mouse model of pancreatic cancer.
We are now trying to identify the molecular mechanisms of human pancreatic carcinogenesis from precursion lesions. We hypothesize that the comparison between the broad spectrum of pancreatic lesions (pre-malignant and malignant) may lead to the identification of genes responsible for pancreatic carcinogenesis. These results will lead to considerable progress in the early therapeutic engagement of pancreatic lesions, providing a molecular based rational for addressing patients to the most appropriate therapeutic choices.
HOBBIES / EXTRAS
In general, I love all sports and I am big fan of football team of my coutry. I am a fly-fisher and I find great pleasure from contact with nature.