Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Sciences and Oncology

Within the PhD curriculum, our line of research focuses on the aspects of mitochondrial genetics in cancer progression. We deal with the role that mitochondria-encoded genes play in contributing to the metabolic reprogramming that cancer cells undergo during progression of solid neoplasia, particularly with respect to the adaptation to hypoxia and nutrients shortage. We also work on the changes and on the microevolution of the mitochondrial genome in response to the tumor microenvironment, leading to quiescence or to an increased metastatic potential. Ultimately, we attempt to validate mitochondrial DNA genotyping as markers for prognosis, via genetics screening and functional studies aimed at understanding the correlations between the metabolic impairment due to mutations and the phenotype of cancer cells harbouring them. A branch of our line of research also deals with the relations between mitochondrial mutations/metabolic impairment and the development of resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs, particularly in ovarian cancer.

Mitochondrial DNA screening, molecular genetics techniques such as zinc-finger nuclease implementation for in vitro knock out, cell transfection and transduction, cell biology techniques, whole transcriptomic and exome data analyses are all the expertises that make up the composition of the research team and to which the PhD student will be exposed during the program.