AICF's 2024-25 Fellows:
Project Abstracts
Remo Alessandris, MD
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Investigating the roles of oncogenic extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA) in cholangiocarcinoma
Dr. Alessandris is a motivated young physician-scientist completing residency in General Surgery at University of Padua with specialized training in hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and liver transplantation. Driven by profound interest in liver and biliary tract cancers, he seized the opportunity to further his training as a Research Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Mentored by Dr. William Jarnagin on the clinical side and Dr. Andrea Ventura on the basic science side, his research focuses on elucidating the prevalence and significance of ecDNA-mediated oncogene amplifications in cholangiocarcinoma using cutting-edge techniques. This project aims to enhance understanding of intra-tumoral heterogeneity, treatment response variability, and prognosis in this aggressive malignancy.
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Investigating the roles of oncogenic extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA) in cholangiocarcinoma
Dr. Alessandris is a motivated young physician-scientist completing residency in General Surgery at University of Padua with specialized training in hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and liver transplantation. Driven by profound interest in liver and biliary tract cancers, he seized the opportunity to further his training as a Research Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Mentored by Dr. William Jarnagin on the clinical side and Dr. Andrea Ventura on the basic science side, his research focuses on elucidating the prevalence and significance of ecDNA-mediated oncogene amplifications in cholangiocarcinoma using cutting-edge techniques. This project aims to enhance understanding of intra-tumoral heterogeneity, treatment response variability, and prognosis in this aggressive malignancy.
Sara Bleve, MD
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Lipid metabolic reprogramming predicts response to AR selective inhibitor (ARSI) in metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients
Dr. Bleve is a medical oncologist at the "Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori" in Italy, focusing her clinical and research interest on genitourinary cancer. During the last year of her residency, she joined the Cornell University Pathology Department to study lipid metabolic reprogramming in prostate cancer. As a research fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine, she will deepen her knowledge of lipidomics in clinical practice under Prof. David Nanus's mentorship. Her research aims to identify a minimally invasive lipid biomarker of response to the new hormonal agents in Black and White men with prostate cancer, enabling more personalized treatment strategies.
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Lipid metabolic reprogramming predicts response to AR selective inhibitor (ARSI) in metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients
Dr. Bleve is a medical oncologist at the "Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori" in Italy, focusing her clinical and research interest on genitourinary cancer. During the last year of her residency, she joined the Cornell University Pathology Department to study lipid metabolic reprogramming in prostate cancer. As a research fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine, she will deepen her knowledge of lipidomics in clinical practice under Prof. David Nanus's mentorship. Her research aims to identify a minimally invasive lipid biomarker of response to the new hormonal agents in Black and White men with prostate cancer, enabling more personalized treatment strategies.
Carlo Bosi, MD
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Defining the contributions of the normal tissue to the immune response to irradiate cancers
Dr. Bosi is a resident in medical oncology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. His research interests revolve around antibody-drug conjugates and cancer immunotherapy. Thanks to AICF, Carlo will join the Santambrogio lab and the Department of Radiation Oncology headed by Prof. Silvia Formenti at Weill Cornell Medicine. He will develop a preclinical model aimed at dissecting the unique immunogenic contributions of cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment in response to radiotherapy (RT) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). His aim is to bridge crucial knowledge gaps in the radiotherapy-immunotherapy field and identify the most promising RT/ICI combinations.
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Defining the contributions of the normal tissue to the immune response to irradiate cancers
Dr. Bosi is a resident in medical oncology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. His research interests revolve around antibody-drug conjugates and cancer immunotherapy. Thanks to AICF, Carlo will join the Santambrogio lab and the Department of Radiation Oncology headed by Prof. Silvia Formenti at Weill Cornell Medicine. He will develop a preclinical model aimed at dissecting the unique immunogenic contributions of cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment in response to radiotherapy (RT) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). His aim is to bridge crucial knowledge gaps in the radiotherapy-immunotherapy field and identify the most promising RT/ICI combinations.
Vanessa Cristaldi, PhD
Institution: New York University Grossman School of Medicine
Project title: Inflammatory memory and immunological exposure: impact on T cell trafficking in melanoma
Dr. Cristaldi obtained her PhD in Molecular and Experimental Medicine in 2022 from Humanitas University in Milan. Last year, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Amanda Lund at NYU Langone where she is investigating the mechanisms of inflammatory memory in vascular endothelial cells and the impact on the trafficking of effector and memory T cell responses at homeostasis and in melanoma. Principal aim is to understand the contribution of endothelial cells to tissue memory to understand how endothelial reprogramming impacts melanoma immune surveillance, thus providing both foundational new knowledge in the field of immunology and scaling up new immunotherapies.
Institution: New York University Grossman School of Medicine
Project title: Inflammatory memory and immunological exposure: impact on T cell trafficking in melanoma
Dr. Cristaldi obtained her PhD in Molecular and Experimental Medicine in 2022 from Humanitas University in Milan. Last year, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Amanda Lund at NYU Langone where she is investigating the mechanisms of inflammatory memory in vascular endothelial cells and the impact on the trafficking of effector and memory T cell responses at homeostasis and in melanoma. Principal aim is to understand the contribution of endothelial cells to tissue memory to understand how endothelial reprogramming impacts melanoma immune surveillance, thus providing both foundational new knowledge in the field of immunology and scaling up new immunotherapies.
Edoardo Garbo, MD
Institution: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Project title: Clinicopathologic, genomic, and transcriptomic correlates of wild-type KRAS amplification in NSCLC
Dr. Garbo is a medical oncology fellow at the University of Turin, specializing in translational oncology for lung cancer. Collaborating with pre-clinical scientists, he aims to integrate biological findings into clinical practice by discovering new biomarkers and treatment targets. His project focuses on KRAS, often altered in lung cancer. His research identifies a "new" KRAS alteration and evaluates existing or upcoming drugs to expand treatment options. He also explores if this KRAS alteration coexists with other targets, influencing drug resistance, which is crucial for precision oncology. This will result in the employment of "new" KRAS-targeted treatments for more patients.
Institution: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Project title: Clinicopathologic, genomic, and transcriptomic correlates of wild-type KRAS amplification in NSCLC
Dr. Garbo is a medical oncology fellow at the University of Turin, specializing in translational oncology for lung cancer. Collaborating with pre-clinical scientists, he aims to integrate biological findings into clinical practice by discovering new biomarkers and treatment targets. His project focuses on KRAS, often altered in lung cancer. His research identifies a "new" KRAS alteration and evaluates existing or upcoming drugs to expand treatment options. He also explores if this KRAS alteration coexists with other targets, influencing drug resistance, which is crucial for precision oncology. This will result in the employment of "new" KRAS-targeted treatments for more patients.
Mauro Giuffre', MD
Institution: Yale School of Medicine
Project title: Predicting One-Year Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicentric Machine Learning Pipeline to Deploy a Prediction Model with an Integrated Fine-Tuned Large Language Model with Relevant Guidelines to Provide Point-of-Care Patient Management
Dr. Giuffrè, a specialist in digestive diseases, merges clinical practice with data science to advance healthcare. After completing his clinical fellowship at the University of Trieste, he joined Yale School of Medicine, where he focuses on integrating advanced machine learning models with clinical applications. Currently, his work involves developing predictive models for hepatocellular carcinoma one-year recurrence, utilizing a multicentric machine learning dataset to enhance patient management and outcomes. Dr. Giuffrè's dedication to interdisciplinary research aims to bridge the gap between technological advancements and clinical practice, benefiting patients worldwide.
Institution: Yale School of Medicine
Project title: Predicting One-Year Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicentric Machine Learning Pipeline to Deploy a Prediction Model with an Integrated Fine-Tuned Large Language Model with Relevant Guidelines to Provide Point-of-Care Patient Management
Dr. Giuffrè, a specialist in digestive diseases, merges clinical practice with data science to advance healthcare. After completing his clinical fellowship at the University of Trieste, he joined Yale School of Medicine, where he focuses on integrating advanced machine learning models with clinical applications. Currently, his work involves developing predictive models for hepatocellular carcinoma one-year recurrence, utilizing a multicentric machine learning dataset to enhance patient management and outcomes. Dr. Giuffrè's dedication to interdisciplinary research aims to bridge the gap between technological advancements and clinical practice, benefiting patients worldwide.
Federico La Manna, PhD
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Beyond vicious: addressing how prostate cancer dysregulates the local stem cell compartments to promote bone metastasis
After his Master in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna, Dr. La Manna obtained his PhD in Medicine from Leiden University, with a thesis on tailoring novel translational tools to tackle advanced prostate cancer. With the support of the AICF Fellowship, Dr. La Manna will further investigate the process of cancer spreading to the bone. By using genetic tracing and functional targeting, the cellular and molecular basis of the cancer cells crosstalk with the bone microenvironment will be determined, providing new cellular basis for the understanding and targeting of this highly morbid and still unaddressed feature of cancer.
Institution: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project title: Beyond vicious: addressing how prostate cancer dysregulates the local stem cell compartments to promote bone metastasis
After his Master in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna, Dr. La Manna obtained his PhD in Medicine from Leiden University, with a thesis on tailoring novel translational tools to tackle advanced prostate cancer. With the support of the AICF Fellowship, Dr. La Manna will further investigate the process of cancer spreading to the bone. By using genetic tracing and functional targeting, the cellular and molecular basis of the cancer cells crosstalk with the bone microenvironment will be determined, providing new cellular basis for the understanding and targeting of this highly morbid and still unaddressed feature of cancer.
Francesca Manara, PhD
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Dissecting the role of Hvcn1 in B cell immunity and lymphomagenesis
Dr. Manara received her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2023 from the International Agency for Research on
Cancer-World Health Organization (IARC-WHO) in Lyon, France. She then joined as a postdoctoral scholar the lab of
Dr. Jayanta Chaudhuri, PhD, and Dr. Stephanie Downs-Canner, MD, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
York. Dr. Manara's research investigates how the B cell immune responses to pathogens can lead to B cell lymphomas
by pinpointing the specific activation signals and pathways underlying B cell activation that may increase the risk of
malignant cell transformation.
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Dissecting the role of Hvcn1 in B cell immunity and lymphomagenesis
Dr. Manara received her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2023 from the International Agency for Research on
Cancer-World Health Organization (IARC-WHO) in Lyon, France. She then joined as a postdoctoral scholar the lab of
Dr. Jayanta Chaudhuri, PhD, and Dr. Stephanie Downs-Canner, MD, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
York. Dr. Manara's research investigates how the B cell immune responses to pathogens can lead to B cell lymphomas
by pinpointing the specific activation signals and pathways underlying B cell activation that may increase the risk of
malignant cell transformation.
Matteo Mazzocca, PhD
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project title: Dynamics of enhancer-oncogene interactions in Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma
Dr. Mazzocca received his PhD in Molecular Medicine from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Milan) under the supervision of Prof. Davide Mazza. During his PhD, he studied how chromatin organization mediates gene expression by the tumor suppressor p53. He then joined the 3D Genome Lab of Prof. Anders Sejr Hansen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research focuses on the oncogene PAX3-FOXO1 (P3F), which causes the childhood tumor alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS). He investigates the mechanisms underlying P3F expression, involving a 3D genome alteration known as “enhancer hijacking.” Understanding enhancer hijacking could provide strategies to inhibit P3F expression in ARMS.
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project title: Dynamics of enhancer-oncogene interactions in Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma
Dr. Mazzocca received his PhD in Molecular Medicine from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Milan) under the supervision of Prof. Davide Mazza. During his PhD, he studied how chromatin organization mediates gene expression by the tumor suppressor p53. He then joined the 3D Genome Lab of Prof. Anders Sejr Hansen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research focuses on the oncogene PAX3-FOXO1 (P3F), which causes the childhood tumor alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS). He investigates the mechanisms underlying P3F expression, involving a 3D genome alteration known as “enhancer hijacking.” Understanding enhancer hijacking could provide strategies to inhibit P3F expression in ARMS.
Martina Milighetti, PhD
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Immune requisites for durable T cell immunity to personalized RNA cancer vaccines
Dr. Milighetti has a Biochemistry degree from Imperial College London and pursued her PhD in Computational Immunology at University College London, studying the specificity of the T cell receptor, the protein that allows T cells to identify infected or cancerous cells. After completing her PhD, she moved to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to work with Drs. Vinod Balachandran and Benjamin Greenbaum on the immunological response to personalized mRNA vaccines in pancreatic cancer (PDAC). With AICF’s support, she will be investigating the immunological factors that promote a functional and durable vaccine-induced T cell response in PDAC.
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Immune requisites for durable T cell immunity to personalized RNA cancer vaccines
Dr. Milighetti has a Biochemistry degree from Imperial College London and pursued her PhD in Computational Immunology at University College London, studying the specificity of the T cell receptor, the protein that allows T cells to identify infected or cancerous cells. After completing her PhD, she moved to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to work with Drs. Vinod Balachandran and Benjamin Greenbaum on the immunological response to personalized mRNA vaccines in pancreatic cancer (PDAC). With AICF’s support, she will be investigating the immunological factors that promote a functional and durable vaccine-induced T cell response in PDAC.
Francesco Paoloni, MD
Institution: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Project title: The role of immune checkpoint inhibitors in NUT carcinoma
Dr. Paoloni is a Medical Oncology Fellow at the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy. During his residency, he focused his research interest on the study of prognostic factors related to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), mainly in thoracic malignancies. For the last year of fellowship, Dr. Paoloni joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he was involved in a research project on NUT carcinoma (NC) under the mentorship of Dr. Jia Luo. With the support of the AICF Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dr. Paoloni aims to study clinicopathological, genomic and immunophenotypic factors impacting the outcomes of patients with NC treated with ICIs.
Institution: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Project title: The role of immune checkpoint inhibitors in NUT carcinoma
Dr. Paoloni is a Medical Oncology Fellow at the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy. During his residency, he focused his research interest on the study of prognostic factors related to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), mainly in thoracic malignancies. For the last year of fellowship, Dr. Paoloni joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he was involved in a research project on NUT carcinoma (NC) under the mentorship of Dr. Jia Luo. With the support of the AICF Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dr. Paoloni aims to study clinicopathological, genomic and immunophenotypic factors impacting the outcomes of patients with NC treated with ICIs.
Viviana Rubino, PhD
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Dual targeting of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) using interleukin 7 receptor-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (IL7R-CAR) T cells
Dr. Rubino obtained her PhD in Immunology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where she investigated immune-related mechanisms regulating leukemia stem cells. She then moved to New York to join the lab of Dr. Adusumilli, who pioneered translation of CAR-T cell therapy for treating solid tumors.
Her goal is to address the main hurdle to CAR T cells efficacy: the immunosuppressive microenvironment of solid tumors, including a high proportion of macrophages, that characterizes therapy-resistant patients. With AICF support, Viviana will employ methods to genetically engineer CAR T cells, improving their efficacy against tumor cells and simultaneously counteracting the immunosuppressive microenvironment.
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project title: Dual targeting of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) using interleukin 7 receptor-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (IL7R-CAR) T cells
Dr. Rubino obtained her PhD in Immunology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where she investigated immune-related mechanisms regulating leukemia stem cells. She then moved to New York to join the lab of Dr. Adusumilli, who pioneered translation of CAR-T cell therapy for treating solid tumors.
Her goal is to address the main hurdle to CAR T cells efficacy: the immunosuppressive microenvironment of solid tumors, including a high proportion of macrophages, that characterizes therapy-resistant patients. With AICF support, Viviana will employ methods to genetically engineer CAR T cells, improving their efficacy against tumor cells and simultaneously counteracting the immunosuppressive microenvironment.
Andrea Timpanaro, PhD
Institution: Seattle's Children Research Institute
Project title: TRAIL-expressing CAR T cells against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma
Dr. Timpanaro obtained his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern in 2022, where he studied the translational efficacy of CAR T cell therapies in pediatric sarcomas. In February 2023, he joined the Vitanza Lab at the Seattle Children’s Hospital to investigate combinatorial strategies to the current B7-H3 CAR T cell-based therapy against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a fatal brainstem tumor affecting children. With the support of the AICF Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, he aims to engineer CAR T cells with next-generation strategies such as SynNotch-CAR technology to finely trigger apoptosis on brain tumor cells.
Institution: Seattle's Children Research Institute
Project title: TRAIL-expressing CAR T cells against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma
Dr. Timpanaro obtained his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bern in 2022, where he studied the translational efficacy of CAR T cell therapies in pediatric sarcomas. In February 2023, he joined the Vitanza Lab at the Seattle Children’s Hospital to investigate combinatorial strategies to the current B7-H3 CAR T cell-based therapy against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a fatal brainstem tumor affecting children. With the support of the AICF Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, he aims to engineer CAR T cells with next-generation strategies such as SynNotch-CAR technology to finely trigger apoptosis on brain tumor cells.
