Research Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
I am a Research Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. After obtaining my PhD title in Padua, Italy, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to join the laboratory of Prof. C. M. Croce as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and investigate the role of non-coding RNAs, especially microRNAs, in the onset and progression of several types of solid tumors. In particular, I contributed to the discovery that microRNAs can act like “hormones” and mediate cell-to-cell communication between tumor cells and the surrounding microenvironment. I published a study showing that tumor-secreted miR-21 and miR-29a are internalized by surrounding macrophages where they bind and activate the TLR7/8 receptor, leading to the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines that contribute to tumor growth and spread. This work led to further investigations revealing that cancer-secreted miR-21 and miR-29a promote also cell death in myoblasts through their binding to the TLR7/8 receptor and the activation of the phospho-JNK pathway, a process connected to muscle atrophy associated to cancer cachexia. More recently, as a Research Scientist, I collaborated with the group of Prof. R. E. Pollock, resulting in the publication of two important studies: in the first one (Cancer Res. 2017), we showed that secreted miR-25-3p and miR-92a-3p are important cell-to-cell communicators between liposarcoma cells and macrophages. In the second publication (Cancer Res. 2019), we demonstrated that MDM2 gene is also secreted by liposarcoma cells and, once interalized by surrounding pre-adipocytes, inhibits p53 and promotes the establishment of a pre-metastatic niche through the activation of the metallo-proteinase MMP2. Currently, I continue investigating the molecular mechanisms regulating liposarcoma progression under the mentorship of Prof. R. E. Pollock, and I collaborate with several research groups both at the Ohio State University, United States and in Europe.
