Mariaelena Pistoni

Role: After obtaining a Masters in Biological Sciences at the University of Parma (Italy), I undertook a Ph.D at the European Institute Of Oncology, Milan (Italy), working on the characterization of a novel Ras-like Protein (L11A).

During my PhD training, I had the opportunity to become familiar with various molecular biology assays relevant for my job: cell culture techniques, gene expression analysis, chromatin immunoprecipitation, western blot and immunofluorescence. Thus, these techniques were further honed during my postdoctoral training at the Scientific Institute San Raffaele, Milan (Italy) and refined during my permanence at the Stem Cell Institute (SCIL) at KU Leuven in Belgium from September 2011. In particular, SCIL has the mission to investigate the potential of stem cells for treatment of congenital, acquired and degenerative human diseases.

After several years abroad, I decided to come back in Italy where I joined the Laboratory of Translational Research at ASMN Research Hospital in Reggio Emilia (Italy). I initially focused my attentions on epigenetic alterations in non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas, but I am currently working on the role of lncRNAs (long non coding RNAs) on breast cancers. Through molecular and cellular biology approaches, the challenges will be to characterize the role of lncRNAs in tumorigenesis and to undestand their potential for being considered “druggable” target.

The current research aims are:

1. identification of lncRNAs bound to activatory transcription factors using a NGS (Next Generation Sequence) platform followed by RNA immunoprecipitation to study the involvment of lncRNAs in cancer development and progression:
2. characterization of the activatory NEAT1 lncRNAs, in association to BRD4, in breast cancer and dissect its mechanism of action:
3. understand the anti-cancer drugs resistance linked to lncRNAs mis-regulation expression.

E-mail: pistoni.mariaelena@ausl.re.it