Ricerc@Sapienza

My research activities have been mainly conducted in the field of natural innate immunity and tumor immunology, with a specific interest in NK cell phenotype, activation and function. In particular, the main interest of my research activity was to study the interplay between NK cells and tumor cells to dissect the molecular pathways that regulate the expression of NK cell activating ligands on tumor cells (i.e. multiple myeloma), mainly in response to several chemotherapeutic agents. These studies highlighted the critical contribution of the DNA-damage response and senescence pathways in up-regulating their expression on different types of cancer cells. Furthermore, the analysis of the senescent secretome has elucidated some of the mechanisms capable of improving NK cell-tumor immune surveillance. More recently, my research has focused on studying innate immune surveillance against HPV-related cervical cancers, through the characterization of novel immunotherapeutic strategies aimed at restoring intrinsic innate immune responses, including ADAR1-mediated type I interferon production.