Our Research Units

The research program of the Cancer Cell Dynamics Unit focuses on studying cellular signaling dynamics with high temporal resolution and at the single-cell level.

The research unit of Cancer Genome Dynamics is focused on developing new tools to study chromothripsis and cancer genome evolution. We are particularly interested in how catastrophic processes, like chromothripsis, can shape the evolution of the cancer genome during the different steps of tumorigenesis.

Our group studies cancer genomics using large-scale next-generation sequencing data to identify and characterize the molecular mechanisms driving cancer onset and progression.

The “Chemical Biology” Unit develops new technologies and new strategies for enhancing drug therapies. Particular attention is paid to the pathways that enable the internalisation and delivery of biomolecules and biopharmaceuticals into intracellular compartments of the cell.

The research unit combines molecular, cellular, and global genomic approaches to investigate epigenetic and epitranscriptomic modifications that occur in response to environmental or developmental signals and that are deregulated in tumour transformation.

The research program of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit focuses on the integration of clinical, environmental (exposures, lifestyles, diet, diseases, and intermediate phenotypes), and genomic and epigenomic data collected in large prospective studies.

The major interest of the unit is to decipher the link between genomic instability, cancer stemness and anti-tumor immune response, in order to develop effective and durable immunotherapeutic strategies.

The studies of the Immune regulation Unit are aimed at understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying the development of the immune response.

The goal of the unit is the generation of innovative strategies for stimulating the antitumor immune response in cancer patients.

Inter-unit Project “Genomic Profiles Analysis in Children, Adolescents and Young Adult with sarcomas” (SAR-GEN_ITA).

The unit’s research program is related to the development of computational techniques inspired by statistical mechanics applied to biological research: from the quantitative analysis of large-scale biological databases to the inference of complex interaction networks.