Researcher in Pharmacology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
The central theme of her studies has been the research of new molecular targets for cancer diagnosis and therapy.
She got her PhD in Hematology in 1995 studying the role of the repair enzyme O6-methylguanina-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) in resistance to triazene compounds.
As a postdoctoral fellow at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research she analyzed the implications of promoter methylation in tumor cells, in particular in the expression of the tumor specific antigen MAGE-1.
As a postdoctoral fellow at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) she has been studying telomerase activity in primary tumors as a measure of tumor cell killing by drugs.
Her interest has later switched towards microRNAs as tumor markers and as potential new therapeutic agents.
In the last years, she has studying the potential of the anticancer drugs inhibiting PARP1 activity on culture of primary acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
Co-author of 35 international full papers (first-last author in 15 papers). H-Index 17; citations 1722; source: Scopus.