WORK EXPERIENCE
1991-today IRCCS-Regina Elena National Cancer Institute Dirigente Sanitario Biologo - Senior Staff Scientist
01/07/2003-10/08/2003 Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation National Institute of Child Health and Human. Development. NIH Bethesda UICC Fellow for abroad, Visiting Scientist Research interests Dynamics of NF-Y Transcription Factor in Living Cells during Mitosis.
01/08/1999-31/08/1999 Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation National Institute of Child Health and Human. Development. NIH Bethesda Contractor, Visiting Scientist Research interests Set up of FLIP-FRAP experiments to visualize the NF-Y dynamics in normal and transformed living cells.
01/05/1996- 15/07/1996 Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation National Institute of Child Health and Human. Development. NIH Bethesda FIRC Fellow for abroad, Visiting scientist Research interests Genomic footprinting of the cyclin B1 to investigate the DNA elements involved in its transcription 06/01/1990-31/07/1990 Molecular Biology Laboratory, IRBM, Research Institute for Molecular Biology Merck-Sigma Tau, Pomezia, Roma.Staff Researcher. Research interests Liver specific transcription in human cells
01/01/1988-05/01/1990 Department of Gene Expression, EMBL, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg. Postdoctoral Fellow Research interests Liver specific transcription in human cells
RESEARCH INTEREST
Since her postdoc at EMBL she is interested in transcriptional regulation of gene expression during cell proliferation, differentiation and transformation. Her work lead to the identification, during differentiation, of a common mechanism of inactivation of a class of cell cycle regulatory genes mediated by the absence of the NF-Y transcriptional factor. Moreover, her studies have contributed to describe molecular mechanisms trough which mutant p53 proteins exert their gain of function. Indeed, she identified that a complex of the mutant p53 protein, the NF-Y transcription factor, and the p300 protein has a role in regulating chromatin state and gene expression in proliferating cells and following DNA damage, with resultant effects on the proliferation of cancer cells. She has been involved in the development of a transgenic mouse model to follow physiological and pathological proliferation events by bioluminescence in vivo imaging, BLI. This animal model get the cover picture of the volume of the MboC journal in 2012 and, again, on Annals of Anatomy in 2016. This animal model has been sold in Europe, thanks to a collaboration between IFO and the Italian biotech, Transgenic Operative Products, and on American market through the Charles River, a leading company in this field. Very recently, in collaboration with the IFOM zebrafish facility, she is involved in the development of the same biological model in zebrafish. Besides her studies on animal model she is also interest in the possible use of cfDNA levels and the preoperative neutrophil lymphocytes (NLR) ratio as prognostic biomarkers of endometrial cancer (EC). Tumor cells can manipulate neutrophils to create different states of phenotypic and functional polarization that can in turn alter tumor behavior. Several studies have demonstrated a role of extracellular neutrophil traps (NETs) in the cancer progression and metastases. This mechanism, called NETosis, could be correlated to the high release of cfDNA into the bloodstream under pathological conditions, in the adhesion of the tumor cells and peritoneal metastases. She is now interest to assess the role of NETosis as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in the EC and provide evidence of his possible involvement in hematogenic and peritoneal metastases. In this regard, she actively collaborate with the Gynaecology Unit at IRE. Responsabilities She is a group leader directly involved in the overall supervision of her research team by providing scientific inputs, discussing the ongoing experiments and ensuring the timely achievement of the proposed tasks. She is responsible for the critical evaluation of the results and their publication in peer reviewed journals. Since 1994, she is responsible of the budget of several public and private grant research projects and is the tutor of PhD students. She share her time also helping the grantoffice activities: -she is responsible for the annual report of the IRE scientific activities to the MoH. -she is part of the working group for the planning of the institutional strategy for the procedure for the publication of scientific articles which includes the rules for the storage of the raw data and the analysis of the integrity of the research. -she is member of the IRE Patent Commette. -she collaborates with Alleanza Contro il Cancro in the Eranet Transcan project.
AWARDS
1987 AIRC fellow
1996 FIRC fellow for abroad
2003 UICC fellow for abroad
2014 Pezcoller Begnudelli Award 2014-2023 ANVUR certificate to Full Professor in Molecular Biology (BIO11 05/E2) and Cellular Biology (BIO13 05/F1) H index 35 according with scopus
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
April 2001 University Sapienza, Rome, Italy Board Certified in Clinical Pathology. 70/70 cum laude
01/01/1987-31712/1989 Molecular Oncogenesis Lab., Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Rome. AIRC fellow
Dicember 1987 University Sapienza, Rome, Italy Title of qualification awarded Italian Biological License.
November 1985 University Sapienza, Rome, Italy Title of qualification awarded Laurea in Biological Science Level in National classification 110/110 RESEARCH SECTORS
Molecular and Cellular Biology, - Cancer Biology, - Experimental Medicine, - In vivo Molecular Imaging
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS since 1999 member of the Associazione di Biologia Cellulare e del Differenziamento (ABCD) and Società Italiana di Biofisica e di Biologia Molecolare (SIBBM).
Since 2019 member of the Associazione Italiana per le Scienze degli Animali da Laboratorio (AISAL)
2010-2012 board member of the SIBBM 2013-2018
board member of the ABCD
2019-2021 board member of SPERA
2019-2020 president of the Nuclear Medicine Discovery (NU.ME.D.) scientific society
Since 2017 delegate for ABCD at the FISV board
PEER REVIEWER ACTIVITIES
2012-today: member of the editorial board of International Journal of Genomic.
Since 2015 member of the editorial board of Peer J.
Since 2018 member of the editorial board of IJMS Since 2020 member of the editorial board of Carcinogenesis
Reviewer for the following peer reviewed scientific journals: BMC bone, FEBS, J. Exp Clinical Cancer Res., NAR, Oncogene, PloS ONE, Experimental Hematology, Nature Communications, Cancer Research, Cell Death and Disease, Cell Death Diff., BBAGRM.
2014 Project Evaluation Reviewer for MIUR-ANVUR (VQR 2004-2010).
2014 Project Evaluation Reviewer for MIUR-ANVUR (VQR 2011-2014).
2016 Project Evaluation Reviewer for Fondation contre le Cancer (Belgio) 2017 Member of the Ministry Committee for the evaluation of the FARE 2016 projects, sector ERC Life Sciences.
2019 Project Evaluation Reviewer for MIUR- PRIN
2017 2019-2020 Project Evaluation Reviewer for Regione Piemonte - Bando PRISM-E
2019-2020 Project Evaluation Reviewer for Central Finance and Contracting Agency (Lettonia).
2020 Project Evaluation Reviewer for National Science Centre, Poland.
2020 Expert for Marie Slodoska Curie Action-Individual Felloship (H2020-MSCA-IF).
TUTOR SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
2006 Expert member of Doctoral Course “Biologia Umana e Genetica” (XIX ciclo), Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Cellulari ed Ematologia, Sezione di Genetica Molecolare Policlinico Umberto I.
2007 Expert member of Doctoral Course Genetica e Biologia Molecolare(XX ciclo), Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare Charles Darwin, Università Sapienza.
From 1996 to today: Tutor for graduate and PhD student thesis. Principal Investigator responsible for postdoctoral fellows from FIRC (5) and Fondazione Veronesi (2)
2014 Expert member of the European School of Molecular Medicine Doctoral Course IFOM, Milano.
2014 Opponent to PhD public defense dissertation. Campus Solna, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 2015
Co-proponent of PhD public defense dissertation. University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands. Student: Filippo Galli, Tutor: Professor Rudi A.J.O. Dierckx
GRANTS since 1995 recipient or copartecipant of AIRC, Telethon, CNR, ASI, Minister of Health, Cariplo Foundation grants and Italian Buddista Istitute. NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL PATENTS
Transgenic animal for screening of compounds that modulate cell proliferation, and its use in the pharmaceutical field. Patent number: 20110197288