At San Raffaele 17 new research projects supported by the AIRC Foundation

There are 17 new grants assigned to researchers at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, in addition to the 55 research projects and scholarships supported by AIRC for 2024.

The overall goal of the new projects and grants is to increase knowledge of tumor diseases and contribute to the improvement of diagnosis methods and therapies currently available in the oncology field.

The projects span a broad spectrum of oncological diseases and include basic research activities on the mechanisms of onset and progression of cancer - often common to several types of solid and blood tumors - and translational and clinical studies, which directly involve patients or use data and samples.

The 17 new grants awarded belong to four different categories:

• Investigator Grants, intended for independent researchers already leading a research laboratory, were awarded to Matteo Bellone (Immunologist at the Clinical Unit of Immunology, Rheumatology, Allergology and Rare Diseases and Professor of Immunology at UniSR), Ivan De Curtis (Full Professor of Applied Biology UniSR and Group leader of the Cell adhesion Unit), Davide Mazza (Associate Professor of Applied Physics UniSR and Group leader of the Imaging of gene regulation Unit), Luigi Naldini (Full Professor of Histology UniSR and Director of the San Raffaele Institute Telethon for Gene Therapy), Cristina Scielzo (Group leader of the Malignant B cells Biology and 3D modeling Unit), Giovanni Tonon (Full Professor of Applied Technical and Medical Sciences at UniSR and Director of the Center for Omics Sciences and Group leader of the Functional Genomics of Cancer Unit), Luca Vago (Associate Professor of Blood Medicine at UniSR and Group leader of the Immunogenetics, Leukemia Genomics and Immunobiology Unit and researcher of the Clinical onco-hematology Unit) and Emilie Venereau (Group leader of the Tissue regeneration and homeostasis Unit).

• Then there are the Italy Post-Doc scholarships, awarded to young PhDs who wish to expand their scientific skills in cancer research at a major Italian laboratory. The winners of these grants are Giorgia Alvisi (Targeted cancer gene therapy Unit), Roza Maria Barouni (Genomics of the innate immune system Unit), Fulvio Bonsignore (Imaging of gene regulation Unit), Marco Notaro (Targeted cancer gene therapy Unit), Alessia Potenza (Experimental hematology Unit), Marta Sampietro (Malignant B cells Biology and 3D modeling Unit) and Martina Spiga (Experimental hematology Unit).
• Cristina Faccani (Experimental Immunology Unit) was awarded an Italy Pre-Doc scholarship, awarded to recent graduates or doctoral students, with the aim of helping young researchers learn the basics of research and gain experience at a major laboratory in Italy.
• Finally, Rosa di Micco (Breast Surgery Unit) was awarded a Next Gen Clinician Scientist, a grant that aims at bringing results from the laboratory to patients more quickly and will enable young physician-researchers to develop and manage an independent clinical research project.

For 2024, the AIRC Foundation supports a total of 72 projects by researchers from San Raffaele for a total of €9,791,532.32, which includes new projects started, those renewed and the entire duration of the scholarships.

AIRC Foundation publishes different types of calls every year, designed to support researchers engaged in the fight against cancer at all stages of their career. These range from young graduate students and postdocs who want to specialize in cancer research, to young researchers who are becoming independent, to group leaders and researchers who have independent lines of research.

AIRC funds are distributed according to the principles and results of the peer review process. This method, used by international research funding agencies, ensures fair, expert, independent and merit-based evaluations of projects and grant applications,in compliance with conflict of interest rules.

More info on AIRC grants is available here: https://www.airc.it/ricercatori/bandi-per-ricercatori