ABCD

National Ph.D. Meeting

Ferrara, Italy · 5-7 February 2026

SIBBM
ABCD

National Ph.D. Meeting

Ferrara, Italy · 5-7 February 2026

SIBBM
ABCD
SIBBM

National Ph.D. Meeting

Ferrara, Italy · 5-7 February 2026

Programme

Programme

  • 12:30-14:00

    Registration

    14:00-16:00

    Oral Session • Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Plasticity

    Chairs: Monica Procacci, Alessandra Palazzi

    Teresa Improda (University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”)
    The glucocorticoid receptor controls ovarian cancer cell plasticity

    Francesca Nigrelli (Molecular Biotechnology Center- University of Turin)
    Unraveling p140Cap role as a modulator of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in breast cancer

    Francesca Agnoli (Sapienza University of Rome)
    The E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM21 in the control of Hedgehog pathway and Hedgehog-dependent tumorigenesis

    Andrea Francesco Benvenuto (European Institute of Oncology, Milan)
    Role of Epsin3-mediated E-Cadherin endocytosis in partial EMT, breast cancer cell invasion and metastasis

    Farouk Aboudou (University of Padua)
    Identification of determinants of breast cancer metastatic dormancy

    16:00-18:30

    Poster Session I (odd numbers) [Coffee will be served at the end of the poster session]

    18:30-19:30

    Keynote Lecture I

    Chairs: Francesca Begnozzi, Monica Procacci

    Stephen Tait (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
    Inflammatory functions of mitochondria – the original intracellular pathogen

    20:30

    Dinner (Astra Hotel)

  • 9:00-11:00

    Oral Session • Metabolism and Mitochondrial Dynamics

    Chairs: Francesca Begnozzi, Michalis Mouratidis

    Emilio Straface (University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro)
    FABP5-driven metabolic remodeling links pleural mesothelioma and papillary thyroid cancer

    Noemi Ghiglione (Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Turin)
    MLK4 regulates mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic rewiring in pancreatic cancer

    Emanuele Giorgio (University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro)
    Iron-driven mitochondrial signaling governs ferroptosis and therapy tolerance in ovarian cancer

    Luca Campea (Sapienza University of Rome)
    The antidiabetic drug metformin inhibits colorectal cancer growth through the PEN2–lysosome–NRF2 axis

    Greta Rauso (European Institute of Oncology, Milan)
    Localized Wnt-signaling promotes asymmetric NuMA-dependent oriented divisions and unequal apportioning of mitochondria

    11:00-11:30

    Coffee Break

    11:30-13:30

    Oral Session • Innovative Approaches to Biological Model and Target Disease

    Chairs: Monica Procacci, Alessandra Palazzi

    Gennaro Di Bonito (Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine - TIGEM, Pozzuoli)
    Fam134B modulation as a novel potential therapeutic strategy for α1-antitrypsin deficiency in vivo

    Mauro Bergamaschi (Bicocca University of Milan)
    Analysis of new therapeutic targets involved in the modulation of the inflammatory response in Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva

    Concetta Mosca (University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” - TIGEM)
    Investigating AAV trafficking determinants in proximal tubule cells for Fanconi-Bickel syndrome gene therapy

    Marianna Grignolo (University of Ferrara)
    Characterization of novel P2X7R allosteric inhibitors as potential anticancer therapy

    Margherita Ferretti (IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome)
    Immune evasion mechanisms at the maternal-fetal interface in recurrent miscarriages as a tool for endometrial cancer escape

    13:30-14:30

    Lunch

    14:30-15:30

    Keynote Lecture II

    Chairs: Michalis Mouratidis, Alessandra Palazzi

    Elena Palma (King’s College London, United Kingdom)
    Studying mitochondrial response to alcohol in complex hepatic human models

    15:30-18:00

    Poster Session II (Even numbers) [Coffee will be served at the end of the poster session]

    18:00-19:00

    Roundtable with Keynote speakers

    20:30

    Dinner (Istituto Vergani)

  • 9:15-10:45

    Oral Session • Genome Instability, RNA Processing and Cell Cycle Control

    Chairs: Francesca Begnozzi, Michalis Mouratidis

    Loris Meoni (University of Bologna)
    RNA Pol II backtracking and TFIIS can affect cancer genome stability

    Maxim Bouvet (University of Turin)
    TGS1-mediated 5’ cap trimethylation regulates translation of target mRNAs in AML

    Sabela Nikolli (IRCCS Regina Elena National cancer Institute, Rome)
    Dysregulation of microRNA biogenesis in cancer: the impact of mutant p53/Dicer complex

    Emanuele Fantastico (University of Turin)
    PIP5K1a-mediated regulation of PIP2 is essential for proper metaphase spindle assembly and accurate mitotic progression

    10:45-11:15

    Coffee Break

    11:15-12:30

    Oral Session • Membrane Dynamics and Cell Fate

    Chairs: Monica Procacci, Alessandra Palazzi

    Vittorio Cirillo (University of Salerno)
    Lipid editing at the Endoplasmic Reticulum: SYNJ1 maintains PI4P homeostasis for COPII-driven export

    Sara Barbarossa (Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona)
    Communication between skeletal muscle and adipose tissue: extracellular Vesicles (EVs) as modulators of lipid metabolism and potential regulators of adipocytes phenotype

    Alessandro Muratore (Bicocca, University of Milan)
    Dissecting the role of the CXCL12–CXCR4–HMGB1 signaling axis in HSC-independent hematopoiesis

    12:30

    Prizes for best oral presentation ("Luca Daveggio" award) and best posters

  • Poster presenters are required to be available for discussion during their assigned session. Odd-numbered posters are pesented in the first session while even-numbered ones during the second session.

    All posters should stay up for the entire duration of the meeting, independently of the session to which they have been assigned. You are expected to have your poster up the latest by 16:00 of Thursday, 5 February. Posters should be taken down before the end of the meeting on Saturday, 7 February. Posters left behind will be removed and discarded by the venue personnel.

    When preparing your poster please remember that the poster's maximum size is 80 x 100 cm; width x height).

    Correct format... poster should be PORTRAIT  poster should NOT be LANDSCAPE Wrong format...

    P.1 Damiano Abbo (Turin)
    Targeting a scaffold protein to halt amoeboid motility and metastatic dissemination in pancreatic cancer

    P.2 Gabriele Bandolin (Udine)
    MEF2D and cell fate decisions in normal and cancerous uterine smooth muscle cells

    P.3 Matteo Bertesi (Modena)
    Preclinical evaluation of a dual JAK/ERK pharmacological inhibition strategy in a mouse model of myelofibrosis

    P.4 Matteo Bertoli (Brescia)
    ADAR-mediated RNA Editing as a strategy to correct genetic disorders

    P.5 Maria Giovanna Bibbò (Rome)
    Study of the sensitivity to small molecules on cancer stem cells isolated from glioblastoma patients

    P.6 Giulia Boarolo (Padua)
    The evolution and function of two phosphosites in the androgen receptor

    P.7 Stefania Bonusi (Brescia)
    Estrogen receptor modulators: an alternative therapeutic approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

    P.8 Martina Broggiato (Milan)
    Monocyte response to micro- and nanoplastics: in vitro evaluation of inflammation, viability, and UV-induced photoaging

    P.9 Flavia Busu (Rome)
    Identification of a circular RNA-mediated regulatory network associated with sotorasib resistance in KRAS-G12C Lung Adenocarcinoma

    P.10 Ludovica Campolongo (Bologna)
    Molecular and functional study of visceral and neuropathic pain in murine and human induced pluripotent stem cell model of Fabry disease

    P.11 Carola Carlini (Padua)
    Generation and characterization of allelic series of hiPSCs to classify variants of unknown significance in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy

    P.12 Cintia Castiglioni (Brescia)
    Exploring ADAR-mediated RNA editing as a potential therapeutic strategy for vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

    P.13 Maria Egle Castorina (Padua)
    Investigating the crosstalk between Schwann cells and macrophages in peripheral nerve sheath tumors

    P.14 Chiara Centrella (Fisciano, SA)
    A novel physiologically relevant in vitro approach to study early gastric intestinal metaplasia in primary human epithelial cells

    P.15 Anna Chierici (Ferrara)
    Wharton’s jelly-based scaffolds as a platform to study IVD cell response to mechanical loading

    P.16 Pietro Chiolerio (Padua)
    Human neuromuscular organoids mimic cancer induced muscle cachexia

    P.17 Elena Nicoletta Colarusso (Ferrara & Ravenna)
    Identification of a novel small-molecule mPTP inhibitor with cardioprotective potential

    P.18 Arianna Coppola (Naples)
    Long non-coding RNA T-UCstem1 modulates paracrine WNT signaling during gastruloid morphogenesis

    P.19 Micaela De Girolamo (Naples)
    The glucocorticoid receptor as a context-dependent regulator of metabolic reprogramming and fate plasticity in ovarian cancer

    P.20 Lara De Luca (Milan)
    Compartmentalized mucosal and peripheral immune–epithelial dynamics in antiretroviral-treated people with HIV

    P.21 Claudia Di Girolamo (Rome)
    Unveiling caspase-8-dependent new molecular pathways in glioblastoma development and resistance to therapy

    P.22 Simona Di Marino (Naples)
    Early-life stage toxicity of psychoactive contaminants in an amphibian model

    P.23 Elisabetta Di Renzi (Rome)
    miR-1297 is frequently downmodulated in flat epithelial atypia of the breast and promotes mammary neoplastic transformation via EphrinA2 regulation

    P.24 Adriana Maria Di Stefano (Florence)
    The novel GLI1/2 inhibitors trigger cellular senescence in melanoma

    P.25 Giulia Ferri (Rome)
    MEX3A/RIG-I axis as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of glioblastoma

    P.26 Chiara Fiorentino (Naples)
    An RNAseq alone approach to quantify skewed X chromosome inactivation from bulk RNAseq data

    P.27 Federica Fortuna (Ferrara)
    Bioinformatic approaches to investigate purinergic receptors in inflammatory bowel disease

    P.28 Cristiana Galeano (Catanzaro)
    Iron-dependent redox imbalance sustains the psoriatic phenotype in CARD14 E138A mutant keratinocytes

    P.29 Angela Gambardella (Palermo)
    Exploring the role of the chemokine receptor CXCR2 in muscle stem cell heterogeneity

    P.30 Ilaria Gatti (Brescia)
    Exploring the effect of LRRK2-mediated neuroinflammation on neuronal tau pathology: implications for parkinson’s disease

    P.31 Claudia Germiniani (Milan)
    Analysis of p53 recruitment to DNA damage foci through Single Molecule Tracking

    P.32 Chiara Giannini (Turin)
    PI4KA in whole-genome doubling and breast cancer progression: implications for novel therapeutic strategies

    P.33 Maryam Gull (Naples)
    Dissecting METTL3 inhibition as a potential platform for synthetic lethality in lung cancer

    P.34 Lisa Isdraele Romano (Catanzaro)
    1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 modulates T cell activation and immune checkpoint pathways in human T cells

    P.35 Mariagrazia Longo (Rome)
    The cerebellar regulator RENKCDT11 in neurodevelopmental disorders

    P.36 Martina Maffezzoni (Brescia)
    MiR-98-5p, miR-130a-3p, and miR-1246 levels in tissue and liquid biopsies of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

    P.37 Alessia Magro (Padua)
    Tracking metabolic changes to identify new vulnerabilities in melanoma cells

    P.38 Karin Manco (Naples)
    Unravelling molecular alterations in methylmalonic acidemia and homocystinuria CblC type through multi-omics approaches

    P.39 Mariano Martelli (Ferrara)
    PML-dependent extracellular vesicles: mechanisms of biogenesis, release, and immunomodulatory impact in the tumor microenvironment

    P.40 Simone Mas (Palermo)
    Mechanobiology-guided drug repurposing identifies budesonide as an inhibitor of stiffness-induced PDAC aggressiveness

    P.41 Francesco Mengarelli (Ancona)
    Coenzyme Q deprivation and side effects induced by Simvastatin on early differentiating and mature C2C12 murine skeletal muscle myotubes

    P.42 Federica Miele (Milan)
    Therapeutic activation of the Integrated Stress Response in MYC-driven B-cell lymphoma

    P.43 Camilla Misogano (Ferrara)
    Pleural mesothelioma: analysis of the HMGB1-mitochondria signaling axis in asbestos induced neoplastic transformation

    P.44 Marco Morosetti (Ancona)
    Coq10 supplementation prevents the inhibition of myogenic differentiation in injured c2c12 murine myoblasts

    P.45 Giuseppe Natali (Catanzaro)
    Redox-mediated antitumor activity of Plasma-Treated Water Solutions in head and neck cancer: impact of monocytes 

    P.46 Ilaria Nunzi (Ancona)
    Exploring the LD-mitochondria axis in the regulation of cell death

    P.47 Riccardo Orlandi (Milan)
    miRNA-regulated pathways in lung transplantation distinguish acute and chronic allograft dysfunction

    P.48 Antonella Palmese (Rome)
    NRF2 enzymatic effectors are involved in resistance to KRASG12C inhibitors in lung adenocarcinoma

    P.49 Miriam Piccioni (Naples)
    Plant miRNAs acts as cross-kingdom regulators in human cancer

    P.50 Maria Chiara Puccio (Palermo)
    Elucidating the role of iRhoms as regulators of MHC-I expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

    P.51 Maria Chiara Rainone (Milan)
    Role of Epsin 3 in mammary gland development, lactation and cancer

    P.52 Marianna Roca (Fisciano, SA)
    When the matrix matters: ECM influence on cell-nanomaterial interactions to modulate macrophage response

    P.53 Carola Ronco (Turin)
    Role of the choline/ethanolamine importer FLVCR1a in hepatic glycolipid metabolism: implications in MASLD progression

    P.54 Alessandro Ruocco (Naples)
    A multi-omics approach to elucidate the role of synaptojanin 1 (SYNJ1) in health and disease

    P.55 Shahnaz Salamat (Genoa)
    Spatiotemporal cellular responses to Trastuzumab-Deruxtecan: lysosomal hubs and organelle triads in HER2+ breast cancer cells

    P.56 Giada Salvi (Ferrara)
    P2X7 inhibition as a new innovative treatment option for tumors with lost or mutated p53

    P.57 Luigi Sartore (Padua)
    Basement membrane–derived ECM signals modulate early lineage decisions in human iPSC - derived neuroectodermal, mesodermal and neuromesodermal progenitors

    P.58 Andrea Scavuzzo (Turin)
    p140Cap constrains an ABCC1-enriched side population to enhance breast cancer chemosensitivity via β-Catenin pathway inhibition

    P.59 Giulia Schiavoni (Rome)
    Glycolytic hyperactivation drives selective vulnerability to HSP90 inhibition in chemoresistant gastric cancer

    P.60 Martina Senatore (Baronissi, SA)
    Role of SAM68 and XRN2 in regulating transcription termination in prostate cancer

    P.61 Gabriele Squillero (Turin)
    Localized phosphatidylinositol delivery at the intercellular bridge drives cytokinesis completion and prevents aneuploidy in breast cancer

    P.62 Jahnavi Srivatsa (Turin)
    STAT3-siRNA-aptamer chimeras to target tumour-stroma crosstalk in breast cancer

    P.63 Davide Tinelli (Ferrara)
    Exploring MCU-dependent mitochondrial calcium signaling in metastatic progression of lung adenocarcinoma

    P.64 Margherita Toffanin (Padua)
    Taming the metabolism of tumor associated macrophages to fight peripheral nerve neoplasms

    P.65 Federico Tolino (Novara)
    Exploring the molecular mechanisms of early-onset breast cancer

    P.66 Giulia Tonnini (Ferrara)
    Identification of circulating lncRNA PM as a potential early diagnostic biomarker for pleural mesothelioma

    P.67 Francesca Tornatore (Turin)
    The role of the extracellular HSP90-Morgana complex in breast cancer cell migration and invasion

    P.68 Taj Uddin (Naples)
    Exploring the role of m6A RNA methylation in modulating BCR-ABL1 expression and its functional impact on CML and ALL

    P.69 Sergio Vulterini (Rome)
    Computational studies of the different conformational states and dynamics of the human iron exporter ferroportin