Dr Lucia Nappi
Position:
- post-doctoral fellow, Department of Urology, Vancouver prostate Centre, UBC
Credentials:
- post-doctoral fellow at Vancouver Prostate centre
Biography:
I started a post-doctoral fellowship at Vancouver Prostate Centre,2 years ago. I completed my medical school studies and medical oncology residency at the University “Federico II” in Naples, Italy, under the supervision of Professors Giampaolo Tortora and Giovannella Palmieri. My previous laboratory experience gave me a strong expertise in studying mechanisms of resistance to targeted agents in different solid tumors, focusing on HER family receptors and on the mechanisms of resistance to targeted HER receptors drugs. I investigated the activity of new compounds and new targetable proteins that can be used in the clinical practice to overcome resistance to approved targeted agents. Using my ability to harmonize peclinical findings with clinical issues I started to work at VPC on different projects aimed to investigate the role of stress-induced chaperone proteins clusterin and hsp27 in different tumor models. Specifically, I'm contributing to the development of new hsp27 inhibitors and in the studying of the functions of clusterin and hsp27 in response to different targeted treatments in prostate cancer. Moreover, inspired by my past experience and knowledge I started to investigate the activity of the new Hsp27 inhibitors in different EGFR dependent cancer cells sensitive or resistant to EGFR inhibitors. My main work's aim is to contribute to understand the mechanisms of resistance to these drugs and improve the clinical outcomes of patients affected by prostate cancer.
Best publications:
1. Lelj-Garolla B, Kumano M, Beraldi E, Nappi L, Rocchi P, Ionescu DN, Fazli L, Zoubeidi A, Gleave ME. Hsp27 inhibition with OGX-427 sensitizes non-small cell lung cancer cells to erlotinib and chemotherapy. Mol Cancer Ther. 2015 Mar 4.
2. Lucia Nappi, Barbara Lelj-Garolla and Martin Gleave, MECHANISMS OF RESISTANCE TO HER-2 TARGETING DRUGS IN BREAST CANCER, accepted by Journal of Carcinogenesis & Mutagenesis.
3. Luigi Formisano, Lucia Nappi, Roberta Rosa, Roberta Marciano, Claudia D’Amato ,Valentina D’Amato, Vincenzo Damiano, Lucia Raimondo, Francesca Iommelli, Antonella Scorziello, Bianca Maria Veneziani, Sabino De Placido and Roberto Bianco. EGFR activation modulates Src-dependent resistance to lapatinib in breast cancer models. Breast Cancer Res. 2014 May 5;16(3):R45
4. D'Amato C, Rosa R, Marciano R, D'Amato V, Formisano L, Nappi L, Raimondo L, Di Mauro C, Servetto A, Fulciniti F, Cipolletta A, Bianco C, Ciardiello F, Veneziani BM, De Placido S, Bianco R. Inhibition of Hedgehog signalling by NVP-LDE225 (Erismodegib) interferes with growth and invasion of human renal cell carcinoma cells. Br J Cancer. 2014 Sep 9;111(6):1168-79. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2014.421. Epub 2014 Aug 5.
5. D'Amato V, Rosa R, D'Amato C, Formisano L, Marciano R, Nappi L, Raimondo L, Di Mauro C, Servetto A, Fusciello C, Veneziani BM, De Placido S, Bianco R. The dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor PKI-587 enhances sensitivity to cetuximab in EGFR-resistant human head and neck cancer models. Br J Cancer. 2014 Jun 10;110(12):2887-95. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2014.241. Epub 2014 May 13.
Work Focus:
- Work Focus (Biomedical): , Cell signaling, Molecular Oncology
- Work Focus (Clinical): Clinical trials
hsp27, clusterin, eGFR, HER family receptors, mechanisms of resistance, development of new drugs, clinical trials.
