Phd in MOLECULAR MEDICINE

email: paola.gazzaniga@uniroma1.it
phone: 06-499733434

PRESENT POSITION
Associate Professor, General Pathology, Molecular Oncology

SSD: MED/46

DEPT. OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE

ADDITIONAL POSITIONS
Head, Research Unit “Liquid Biopsy of Tumors”, Dept. Molecular Medicine, University La Sapienza

EDUCATION AND CAREER
2015- today: Associate Professor, General Pathology , Molecular Oncology Dept. Molecular Medicine, University La Sapienza.
2001 – 2014: assistant professor (SSD MED/04), Dept. Experimental Medicine, University La Sapienza
1996 – 1999 : Post-Graduate Specialty School in oncology, Graduation Cum Laude, Faculty Of Medicine and surgery, University La Sapienza, Rome.
1992 – 1995: PhD Experimental Medicine, University of Aquila, Italy
1992-1994: Visiting Scientist, Deutches Krebsforshung Zentrum (DKFZ, Heidelberg), Division of applied tumor virology
1991: Degree in Medicine and Surgery, University La Sapienza, Faculty Of Medicine, Rome, Italy. Graduation Cum Laude.

MOST RELEVANT RESEARCH LINES
1)Circulating tumor DNA in monitoring targeted therapies in bladder, colorectal and lung cancer
2)Molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells as predictive biomarkers in breast and lung cancer patients candidate to immunotherapies
3)Mutational analysis of urinary circulating tumor DNA in patients with bladder cancer candidate to targeted therapies
4)Clonal evolution of RAS mutant colorectal cancer, particularly referring to bevacizumab-induced selective pressure
5)Mechanisms of Intrinsic and acquired resistance to BCG in patients with non muscle invasive bladder cancer


COLLABORATIONS
Institute of Tumour Biology at the University MedicalCentre Hamburg-Eppendorf (Klaus Pantel);
Institut Curie & UVSQ/Université ParisSaclay (François-Clément Bidard)
Division of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Sciences,University of Manchester (Colin Lindsay);
Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center,Northwestern University (Massimo Cristofanilli);
Istituto Oncologico Veneto (Rita Zamarchi)
Istituto Superioredi Sanità (Ann Zeuner)
Università degli studi di Torino (Federica di Nicolantonio);
Università Campus Biomedico (Bruno Vincenzi)
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Ettore Capoluongo);
Università degli Studi di Roma "Foro Italico"(Guido Carpino),
IRCCS San Martino IST (Alberto Sobrero)
.

FIVE SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Grammatico P, Giannini G, Cortesi E, Di Nicolantonio F, Gazzaniga P. True conversions from RAS mutant to RAS wild-type in circulating tumor DNA from metastatic colorectal cancer patients as assessed by methylation and mutational signature. Cancer Letters. 2021 Jun 1;507:89-96. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2021.03.014.
Nicolazzo C, Barault L, Caponnetto S, Macagno M, de Renzi G, Gradilone A, Belardinilli F, Cortesi E, Di Nicolantonio F, Gazzaniga P. Circulating methylated DNA to monitor the dynamics of RAS mutation clearance in plasma from metastatic colorectal cancer patients. Cancers, 2020, Dec 4;12(12):3633. doi: 10.3390/cancers12123633.PMID: 33291569
Magbanua MJM, Hendrix LH, Hyslop T, Barry WT, Winer EP, Hudis C, Toppmeyer D, Carey LA, Partridge AH,Pierga JY, Fehm T, Vidal-Martínez J, Mavroudis D, Garcia-Saenz JA, Stebbing J, Gazzaniga P, Manso L, Zamarchi R,Antelo ML, De Mattos-Arruda L, Generali D, Caldas C, Munzone E, Dirix L, Delson AL, Burstein H, Qadir M, Ma C,Scott JH, Bidard FC, Park JW, Rugo HS. Serial analysis of circulating tumor cells in metastatic breast cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2021 Apr 6;113(4):443-452. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djaa113. PMID: 3277024
Nicolazzo C, Raimondi C, Gradilone A, Emiliani A, Zeuner A, Francescangeli F, Belardinilli F, Seminara P, Loreni F, Magri V, Tomao S, Gazzaniga P. Circulating Tumor Cells in Right- and Left-Sided Colorectal Cancer. Cancers, 2019 Jul 24;11(8). pii: E1042. doi: 10.3390/cancers11081042 PMID: 31344798
Nicolazzo C, Raimondi C, Mancini M, Caponnetto S, Gradilone A, Gandini O, Mastromartino M, Del Bene G, Prete, A, Longo F, Cortesi E, Gazzaniga P. * (*Corresponding author). Monitoring PD-L1 positive circulating tumor cells in non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with the PD-1 inhibitor Nivolumab. Sci Rep. 2016 Aug 24;6:31726. doi:10.1038/srep31726. PMID: 2755317