Interview
I strongly believe that NAnA ETS helped my career giving me both economic support and visibility.
I consider the identification of miR-214 as a pro-metastatic miRNAs in melanoma and breast cancer as a milestone in my career followed by the demonstration that miR-214 inhibition is able to reduce tumor dissemination. This discovery has led to the patenting of a molecule with potential application in the clinics.
We start both from bioinformatic analysis on publicly available datasets and from screening on samples available at the UPO-Biobank to identify candidate miRNAs for further biological validation.
I am currently working on non-coding RNAs and their implications in age-related disorders, in particular cancer. I am focusing on microRNAs (miRNAs) and the goal is to identify and characterize miRNAs involved in breast cancer and melanoma that could serve as therapeutic targets.
I’m Research Assistant at the University of Piemonte Orientale where I teach Molecular Biology to biologists and medical biotechnologists. Besides the teaching duties, the rest of my time is totally devoted to cancer research in the lab with the help of master and PhD students.
Biosketch
Carmelo Gurnari MD, PhD
Since the very beginning of my career (2000), I focused my research on tumorigenesis. I got my Master degree at the University of Torino working on the role of transcription factor AP-2gamma in the response of breast cancer cells to estrogens. During my PhD at the University of Torino, I studied the role of transcription factor AP-2 in tumors and in neurons using biochemistry, molecular and cellular technologies. Later, during my Post-Doctoral training I kept working on tumor progression, focusing on the study of miRNAs (miRs) involved in tumor dissemination, in particular in melanoma and breast cancer. I am currently a Research Assistant in Molecular Biology at the Department of Translational Medicine, University of Eastern Piedmont, Novara, Italy, where I am running a brand new laboratory focusing on functional oncology.
Among the major publications:
1.Orso F, Virga F, Dettori D, Dalmasso A, Paradzik M, Savino A, Pomatto MAC, Quirico L, Cucinelli S, Coco M, Mareschi K, Fagioli F, Salmena L, Camussi G, Provero P, Poli V, Mazzone M, Pandolfi PP, Taverna D. Stroma-derived miR-214 coordinates tumor dissemination. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2023 Jan 13;42(1):20. doi: 10.1186/s13046-022-02553-5. PMID: 36639824; PMCID: PMC9837925. IF: 12.658
2.Dettori* D, Orso* # F, Penna* E, Baruffaldi D, Brundu S, Maione F, Zisoulis DG, Turco E, Giraudo E, Taverna D#. Therapeutic silencing of miR-214 inhibits tumor progression in multiple mouse models, Mol Ther. 2018 Jun 18. pii: S1525-0016(18)30248-X. doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.05.020. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29929788 *these authors contributed equally, # corresponding authors. IF: 11.454
