Ming Chen, PhD.
Education/Training:
Dr. Ming Chen received his undergraduate training at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China, where he also completed a Master's degree in Biology. He obtained his Ph.D in Pathology at the University of Rochester in 2009 under the supervision of Dr. Shuyuan Yeh, for his work on the roles of estrogen receptor alpha in prostate gland development and pathogenesis.
Basic Research:
Dr Chen's current research is to understand the roles of DOK ("downstream of kinase") family in lung tumorigenesis and roles of PML in prostate cancer progression and metastasis.
Sean Clohessy, PhD
Education/Training:
John (Sean) Clohessy received his undergraduate training the University of Limerick in Ireland, and upon completion of a MSc in Biological Sciences at Dublin City University, he pursued PhD studies under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Brady at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. In 2005 he was awarded a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology for his thesis on the role of Bcl-2 family proteins in apoptosis. Since 2004, Dr. Clohessy has been a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, moving from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York to the Division of Genetics at BIDMC/Harvard Medical School in 2007.
Basic Research:
Dr. Clohessy's current work focuses on the role of the nucloephosmin1 gene in cancer.
Florian Karreth,PhD.
Education/Training:
Dr. Florian Karreth received undergraduate training in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Vienna, Austria. He conducted his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. David Tuveson at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and at CRUK's Cambridge Research Institute in Cambridge, England. In 2010, Florian received a PhD degree from the University of Vienna for his work on modulation of oncogenic transformation by Raf proteins. Florian joined Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi's lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2010.
Basic Research:
Florian's work is focused on the identification and functional characterization of transcripts that operate as competing endogenous RNAs. He currently investigates the oncogenic role of the BRAF pseudogene in mouse models.
Andrea Lunardi, PhD.
Education/Training:
Andrea Lunardi obtained his PhD in Molecular Biotechnologies from the University of Pisa (Italy) in 2003 studying vertebrate neural development using Xenopus laevis as animal model. In 2004 he moved to Trieste (Italy) joining the Molecular Oncology Unit directed by Prof. Del Sal. During this period he focused on the study of p53 family members and their role as tumour suppressors. Since December 2009, Dr. Lunardi is a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi at BIDMC/Harvard University Medical School.
Basic Research:
His major research interest is providing evidence that Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMMs) of human cancer may be useful to stratify patients on the basis of genetic and molecular criteria. Acceleration of drug approval and an optimisation of combinatorial-targeted therapy could be the final results of GEMMs based studies.
Anna Ruocco, PhD
Education/Training:
Anna received her PhD from the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM). She received her Masters Degree in Medical Biotechnologies from the University of Naples Fredrico II.
Basic Research:
Anna is involved in the study of the role of competitive endogenous RNAs in cancer.
Antonella Papa, PhD.
Education/Training:
Antonella Papa received her B.S. from the University of Bologna where she also completed her Ph.D. studying the signaling pathways involved in the neuronal degeneration associated with Alzheimer ’s disease.
In 2008, Antonella joined the Pandolfi lab postdoctoral training, and over the past 6 years she has been working on the functional characterization of mouse models with single and compound loss of tumor suppressors such as Pml, Tsc2, and more predominantly with the phosphatase Pten.
Together with the in vivo analysis of well-established mouse lines, Antonella’s primary project involved the successful generation of new knock-in mouse models for Pten in order to define in vivo the relative contribution of its phosphatase dependent and independent functions to tumor suppression. Her main focus was on the in vivo phenotyping and subsequent identification of novel molecular mechanisms underlying the Pten loss-of-function-driven tumorigenesis. Through this work she has reached important conclusions for the cancer research fields and unveiled new mechanisms of regulation for this essential tumor suppressor.
Basic Research:
Her current work focuses on the development of novel mouse models to study the role of PTEN in tumorigenesis.
Markus Reschke, PhD.
Education/Training:
Dr. Markus Reschke received his undergraduate training in Biological Sciences from the University of Vienna, Austria. After completing his diploma thesis under the supervision of Prof. Erwin Wagner in Vienna, he pursued doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Axel Ullrich at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, Germany. In 2008, he was awarded a PhD degree in Genetics from the Technical University Munich, for his work on the role of the mitogen-inducible gene 6 as a negative regulator of the HER-family of receptor tyrosine kinases. Markus joined the Pandolfi lab as a postdoctoral fellow in December 2009.
Basic Research:
Dr. Reschke's studies in the Pandolfi lab focus on the role of mutant IDH proteins in the development of leukemia. Furthermore, he studies the role of ribosome and ribosome-associated proteins in tumorigenesis.
Su-Jung Song, PhD.
Education/Training:
Su Jung Song received her PhD from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Korea, in 2008. During her PhD course, she studied the mechanistic roles of tumor suppressors which antagonize oncogenic functions of oncogenes for cell cycle regulation. Dr. Song has joined as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi since middle of 2009.
Basic Research:
Her current research focuses on understanding the roles of microRNAs in human cancer pathogenesis and diseases using biochemical and in vivo mouse models.
Akinobu Matsumoto, PhD
Education/Training:
He received M.S. and Ph.D. trainings under the supervision of Prof. Keiichi I. Nakayama at the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and he obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Science in 2011, for his work on the role of the Fbxw7 and p57 in stem cells. He has been a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Pier Paolo Pandolfi since Apr. 2012.
Basic Research:
His studies focus on the role of long non-coding RNAs and circRNAs in prostate cancer.
Nina Seitzer, PhD
Education/Training:
Nina received her PhD from Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Lynda Chin Lab at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Basic Research:
Her studies include the tumor microenvironment of prostate cancer, and protein homeostasis in prostate cancer.
Yvonne Tay, PhD
Education/Training:
Yvonne Tay received her PhD in 2008 from the National University of Singapore/Genome Institute of Singapore for her work on microRNAs in embryonic stem cell biology in the lab of A/Prof Bing Lim. Subsequently, she commenced postdoctoral training at A*STAR in the Experimental Therapeutics Centre and the Institute of Medical Biology, under Dr Farid Ghadessy and Dr Sohail Ahmed respectively. In 2010, she joined the lab of Dr Pier Paolo Pandolfi at BIDMC/Harvard Medical School to continue her postdoctoral training.
Basic Research:
Her current research interests revolve around the role of microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs in tumorigenesis.
Sujung Song
Education/Training:
Sujung received her PhD from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Korea, in 2008. During her PhD course, she studied the mechanistic roles of tumor suppressors which antagonize oncogenic functions of oncogenes for cell cycle regulation. Sujung joined as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi since middle of 2009.
Basic Research:
Sujung's current research focuses on understanding the roles of microRNAs in human cancer pathogenesis and diseases using biochemical and in vivo mouse models
Jlenia Guarnerio,PhD
Education/Training:
Jlenia received her PhD degree in Molecular Medicine in 2012 at University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan. She joined Pier Paolo Pandolfi’s lab as part of her PhD training in September 2010. During her PhD training, she worked mainly on the role of hypoxia inducible factors (HIF1α and HIF2α) in the non cell-autonomous regulation of Hematopoietic stem cell niche. She was a recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the American Italian Cancer Foundation in August 2013, and is a post-doctoral fellow in the Pandolfi lab.
Basic Research:
Jlenia is currently developing two independent projects:
- Investigating the Role of Lrf/Pokemon in mesenchymal stem cells differentiation and transformation leading them to the onset of mesenchymal tumors (sarcomas).
- Dissecting the non-cell-autonomous role of PML, expressed in bone-marrow stromal cells, in sustaining leukemic stem cells.
Cristian Loretelli, PhD
Education/Training:
Dr. Cristian Loretelli received his undergraduate training in Biological Science from the Universita’ Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona (Italy), in July 2000, where he also was awarded a PhD degree in Oncology for his work on the prognostic significance of methylation status in triple-negative breast tumors. In October 2012, Dr. Loretelli received an ISSNAF post-doctoral fellowship and joined Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi’s laboratory.
Basic Research:
Dr. Loretelli’s current research is aimed to characterize the cellular functions of circular RNAs and to define their potential role in prostate cancer.
Lourdes Mendez, MD
Maria Sundvall, MD
