Cocola Cinzia

I'm working at CNR-ITB since 2009, before as temporary postdoc researcher and recently as permanent researcher. I graduated (cum laude) in Biology applied for Biomedical Research in 2006 and obtained a PhD in Molecular Medicine in 2009, both at the University of studies of Milan. My research activity consists in understanding the aberrant molecular and cellular mechanisms that trigger the tumor process and consequently the study and characterization of the cellular heterogeneity present in the tumor mass, using cellular, molecular and bioinformatics tools. Specifically, it is divided as follows: i) Identification, isolation and characterization of normal and cancer stem cells of human and canine breast tissues, by discriminating stem cells from their progeny; ii) Study of function of specific genes involved in stem cell maintaining and tumorigenesis process by modulating gene expression; iii) Generation, characterization and maintenance of in vitro 3D cultures of human and canine tumoral organoids derived from various tissues, in order to recapitulate in vitro disease models, by using biological and synthetic scaffolds; iv) Study of cellular heterogeneity and different epigenetic modifications that can occur in tumor process, by using 3D organoid models and single cell transcriptomics approaches, and evaluation of anti-tumor molecule effects on different cell populations of tumor organoids in order to develop targeted terapies.