Oncologia sperimentale; angiogenesi; ruolo dei fattori di crescita, citochine e chemochine nel controllo della proliferazione tumorale con particolare riferimento al melanoma; ricerca di nuovi marcatori diagnostici del melanoma; test di nuove molecole con attività anti- melanoma in vitro e in vivo; analisi di banche dati

• 1981-87 Laurea in Medicina e Chirurgia laude cum, Univ. Federico II, Napoli
• 1987-1990 Specializzazione in Oncologia, Univ. Federico II, Napoli
• 1987-1990: Fogarty fellowship, NICHD-NIH, Bethesda, USA
• 1991-96 Visiting scientist, Jefferson University, lab Prof. C. M. Croce
• 1992 Corso residenz “Molecular Modeling and Molecular Graphics”, TRIPOS-Associates, Monaco, Germania; “Molecular Modeling techniques” Dept of Chemistry, Univ.York, UK
• 1998 Corso residenz. EMBO in "Structural Biology", Bologna
• 1999 Borsa FIRC Fondazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro 1999 Visiting scientist Jefferson Univ, lab.“NMR and proteomics”
• 2003 Corso Residenz.:"Scuola Nazionale di Citometria GIC" 2003, Napoli.
• 2005 EMBO Workshop "Invasive growth: a genetic program for stem cells, cancer and cancer stem cells" 2005, Candiolo, Torino
• 2006 Corso Residenz. "Stem Cells Differentiation Training Course", IGB-CNR, Napoli.
• 2010 Corso Residenz. Pacchetto statistico SPSS, ISS, Roma.
• 1998-on Corsi di aggiornamento accreditati per ECM
• 2013 Vincitore di Selezione Europea per Educational Grant per corso residenziale 2013 Entrepreneurs in Clinical Academia", INSEAD Business School, Fontainbleu, Paris 23-27 Sept. 2013

• Principal Investigator di progetto di Ricerca Finalizzata Assessment of skin and systemic toxicity in patients undergoing laseR tatTOO removal (ARTOO). (2021-2024)
• Co-Prinicpal investigator del progetto POR -FESR intitolato : " ESCHE MOLECOLARI CONTRO LA TOSSICITÀCUTANEA INDOTTA DA CETUXIMAB E PANITUTUMAB" (2021-2023) (identificato dal Formulario GeCoWEB numero A0375-2020-36572)
• Principal Investigtor del progetto di Ricerca corrente "Identificazione di molecole e meccanismi che inibiscono la crescita del melanoma umano e sviluppo di nuovi approcci verso la diagnosi precoce del melanoma e di altre patologie proliferative cutanee" (2021-2023)

• 2016: Abilitazione nazionale a Professore di I fascia : Biologia Applicata (05-F1); Patologia Generale e Patologia Clinica (06-A2)
• 2019: Segretario Generale di European Society of Translational Medicine (EUSTM, Vienna)
• Premio Adriano Olivetti IV edizione (2019) per Direzione scientifica del corso "IDIaloghi: Prevenzione a fior di pelle"

• European Society for Translational Medicine (EUSTM)
• LILT, Lega italiana per la lotta contro i tumori
• IMI, Intergruppo Melanoma Italiano

• 2025 Nov - Annali di igiene : medicina preventiva e di comunita - Gender dynamics in hand hygiene practices: A survey in a specialized dermatological Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care.
• 2025 Jul 22 - International journal of molecular sciences - Roles of Peripheral Nerves in Tumor Initiation and Progression.
• 2025 Apr 25 - Microorganisms - Investigating Skin Microbial Community in Malignant Melanoma Lesions.
• 2024 Aug 15 - Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR - Circulating interleukin-8 and osteopontin are promising biomarkers of clinical outcomes in advanced melanoma patients treated with targeted therapy.
• 2024 Jul - Experimental dermatology - Topical use of tobramycin: A possible innovative treatment of severe skin chronic ulcers.
• 2024 Mar 22 - International journal of molecular sciences - Anti-Melanoma Effects of Miconazole: Investigating the Mitochondria Involvement.
• 2024 Feb 20 - Cells - Cholangiocarcinoma Malignant Traits Are Promoted by Schwann Cells through TGFβ Signaling in a Model of Perineural Invasion.
• 2024 - Oncology - Alpha-2-Macroglobulin Is a Novel Anticancer Agent.
• 2023 - Frontiers in physiology - Autophagy impairment in human bile duct carcinoma cells.
• 2023 Jan 31 - International journal of molecular sciences - Phytochemicals as Immunomodulatory Agents in Melanoma.
• 2022 Oct 12 - Journal of translational medicine - Analysis of gene expression levels and their impact on survival in 31 cancer-types patients identifies novel prognostic markers and suggests unexplored immunotherapy treatment options in a wide range of malignancies.
• 2022 Oct - Journal of digital imaging - Skin Lesion Area Segmentation Using Attention Squeeze U-Net for Embedded Devices.
• 2022 Feb 16 - Cancers - Expression of Autoimmunity-Related Genes in Melanoma.
• 2022 Jan 29 - Cancers - Editorial on Special Issue "Advances and Novel Treatment Options in Metastatic Melanoma".
• 2021 Jun 13 - Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) - Targeting Melanoma-Initiating Cells by Caffeine: In Silico and In Vitro Approaches.
• 2021 Jan 15 - Biomedicines - Melanoma Cell Resistance to Vemurafenib Modifies Inter-Cellular Communication Signals.
• 2021 Jan - Autophagy - Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)(1).
• 2020 Dec 8 - Cancers - Investigating Serum and Tissue Expression Identified a Cytokine/Chemokine Signature as a Highly Effective Melanoma Marker.
• 2020 Nov - FEBS open bio - An investigation into the molecular basis of cancer comorbidities in coronavirus infection.
• 2020 Oct 7 - Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR - Nicotinamide inhibits melanoma in vitro and in vivo.
• 2020 Oct - Melanoma research - Melanogenesis and autophagy in melanoma.
• 2020 Jun 1 - American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism - Reply to Jakovac: About COVID-19 and vitamin D.
• 2020 May 19 - JMIR cancer - Expression of Genes Related to Lipid Handling and the Obesity Paradox in Melanoma: Database Analysis.
• 2020 Jan - European journal of cancer care - Preliminary results of a counselling programme for fertility preservation in female cancer patients: The experience of the GEMME DORMIENTI network.
• 2019 Aug 1 - Life sciences - Theophylline induces differentiation and modulates cytoskeleton dynamics and cytokines secretion in human melanoma-initiating cells.
• 2019 Apr 11 - Nutrients - The Role of Autophagy in Liver Epithelial Cells and Its Impact on Systemic Homeostasis.
• 2019 - BioMed research international - Beneficial Role of Phytochemicals on Oxidative Stress and Age-Related Diseases.
• 2019 Mar 29 - Cancers - Ion Channel Expression in Human Melanoma Samples: In Silico Identification and Experimental Validation of Molecular Targets.
• 2019 - ALTEX - Non-animal models in dermatological research.
• 2018 Dec 28 - Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR - TNF-alpha and metalloproteases as key players in melanoma cells aggressiveness.
• 2018 - Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity - WIPI1, BAG1, and PEX3 Autophagy-Related Genes Are Relevant Melanoma Markers.
• 2018 - Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity - Oxidative Stress Induces HSP90 Upregulation on the Surface of Primary Human Endothelial Cells: Role of the Antioxidant 7,8-Dihydroxy-4-methylcoumarin in Preventing HSP90 Exposure to the Immune System.
• 2017 Oct - Expert opinion on therapeutic targets - Role of 'shared epitope' and other citrullination-sites in rheumatoid arthritis and in melanoma.
• 2017 Jun 15 - International journal of molecular sciences - Lipid Storage and Autophagy in Melanoma Cancer Cells.
• 2017 May - Microvascular research - Nailfold capillaroscopic parameters and skin telangiectasia patterns in patients with systemic sclerosis.
• 2017 Mar 28 - International journal of molecular sciences - Letter to the Editor: "Ion Channels in Brain Metastasis"-Ion Channels in Cancer Set up and Metastatic Progression.
• 2017 Mar - Amino acids - Transglutaminase type 2 affects cell migration through post-translational modification of platelet-derived growth factor-BB.
• 2017 - Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity - Multifaceted Roles of GSK-3 in Cancer and Autophagy-Related Diseases.
• 2016 Nov 22 - Oncotarget - PDGFR-alpha inhibits melanoma growth via CXCL10/IP-10: a multi-omics approach.
• 2016 Oct 4 - Journal of translational medicine - Ion channels expression and function are strongly modified in solid tumors and vascular malformations.
• 2016 Sep - Computerized medical imaging and graphics : the official journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society - Skin lesion image segmentation using Delaunay Triangulation for melanoma detection.
• 2016 - Autophagy - Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition).
• 2015 Jul - Biochimica et biophysica acta - c-Flip KO fibroblasts display lipid accumulation associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress.
• 2015 - Mediators of inflammation - Cancer Microenvironment and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Response.
• 2014 - PloS one - Identification of serum regression signs in infantile hemangioma.
• 2013 Nov 14 - Blood - Comprehensive analysis of PTEN status in Sezary syndrome.
• 2013 Sep - The Journal of rheumatology - Association of dermoscopic profiles of telangiectases with nailfold videocapillaroscopic patterns in patients with systemic sclerosis.
• 2013 Jun 6 - International journal of molecular sciences - Autophagy in prostate cancer and androgen suppression therapy.
• 2013 May - Pigment cell & melanoma research - BAMM: a preliminary bibliometric analysis on melanoma manuscripts.
• 2013 - PloS one - Differential denaturation of serum proteome reveals a significant amount of hidden information in complex mixtures of proteins.
• 2013 Jan - Amino acids - Tissue transglutaminase activity protects from cutaneous melanoma metastatic dissemination: an in vivo study.
• 2012 Nov - Apoptosis : an international journal on programmed cell death - Autophagy modulators sensitize prostate epithelial cancer cell lines to TNF-alpha-dependent apoptosis.
• 2012 - PloS one - An Endogenous Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) signal discriminates nevi from melanomas in human specimens: a step forward in its diagnostic application.
• 2011 Mar 21 - Journal of translational medicine - Increase of plasma IL-9 and decrease of plasma IL-5, IL-7, and IFN-γ in patients with chronic heart failure.
• 2011 Feb - Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy - The FGF-2-derived peptide FREG inhibits melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo.
• 2011 - PloS one - RAM, an RGDS analog, exerts potent anti-melanoma effects in vitro and in vivo.
• 2010 Apr 22 - Molecular cancer - Intracellular targets of RGDS peptide in melanoma cells.
• 2009 Aug - Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) - Platelet-derived growth factor-receptor alpha strongly inhibits melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo.
• 2009 Jun - The FEBS journal - Thrombin-mediated impairment of fibroblast growth factor-2 activity.
• 2008 Apr - Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology - HMGB1-stimulated human primary cardiac fibroblasts exert a paracrine action on human and murine cardiac stem cells.
• 2008 Mar - Annals of clinical biochemistry - Balance of transforming growth factor-beta1 and platelet-derived growth factor-BB is associated with kidney allograft rejection.
• 2006 Nov - Molecular endocrinology (Baltimore, Md.) - Glycated fibroblast growth factor-2 is quickly produced in vitro upon low-millimolar glucose treatment and detected in vivo in diabetic mice.
• 2006 May 1 - Frontiers in bioscience : a journal and virtual library - The role of transglutaminase-2 and its substrates in human diseases.
• 2006 Mar 1 - Blood - Heterodimerization of FGF-receptor 1 and PDGF-receptor-alpha: a novel mechanism underlying the inhibitory effect of PDGF-BB on FGF-2 in human cells.
• 2005 Feb - Immunology and cell biology - RGDS peptide inhibits activation of lymphocytes and adhesion of activated lymphocytes to human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro.
• 2004 Jun 1 - Blood - RGDS peptide induces caspase 8 and caspase 9 activation in human endothelial cells.
• 2003 Mar 7 - The Journal of biological chemistry - Identification of a novel domain of fibroblast growth factor 2 controlling its angiogenic properties.
• 2003 Feb 8 - Lancet (London, England) - Cogan's syndrome as an autoimmune disease.
• 2003 Feb 1 - Analytical biochemistry - Modification of Job's method for determining the stoichiometry of protein-protein complexes.
• 2003 Jan 1 - Nucleic acids research - Active Sequences Collection (ASC) database: a new tool to assign functions to protein sequences.
• 2002 Aug - The American journal of pathology - Sugar-induced modification of fibroblast growth factor 2 reduces its angiogenic activity in vivo.
• 2002 Mar 15 - Blood - Platelet-derived growth factor inhibits basic fibroblast growth factor angiogenic properties in vitro and in vivo through its alpha receptor.
• 2002 Jan 11 - The Journal of biological chemistry - Platelet-derived growth factor-BB and basic fibroblast growth factor directly interact in vitro with high affinity.