p53 aggregation in cancer initiation and progression
We are investigating the role of p53 aggregation in cancer onset and progression. We exploit p53 aggregation for therapeutic intervention using peptide drugs, and are testing combinatorial regimens with traditional chemotherapy and other targeted agents
Mutant p53 aggregation targeting in ovarian cancer: Soragni et al, Cancer Cell 2016, 29:90-103 Mutant/WT p53 & p73 aggregation targeting in blood cancer: Zeng, Soragni et al, 2016 Blood 2016, 128:3944
Protein aggregation in cancer
We are identifying which proteins tend to phase separate in different cancers, in which conditions this happens and design therapeutic peptides to target them for cancer therapy
Cancer prevention in tumor predisposition syndromes
We are investigating novel approaches to prevent cancer in hereditary genetic disorders that promote tumor formation in affected patients
Tumor organoid screenings for functional precision medicine
We develop strategies to test drugs in 3D tumor organoid models in a fast, reliable, high-throughput, inexpensive manner. Requiring few tumor cells, we aim to extend our methods to test combination of chemotherapies or targeted therapies directly on primary tumors from patients' biopsies or surgical samples in order to personalize treatment. Our most current work is focused on sarcoma, ovarian cancer, carcinoids as well as neurofibromas.
A novel method for high-throughput drug screenings in 3D tumor organoids: Phan et al, Cancer Research 2017, 77(13 Suppl):Abstract #5782 A simple high-throughput approach identifies actionable drug responses in patient-derived tumor organoids: Phan et al, bioRxiv 2017