Elisa Bergaggio, PhD

I graduated in Medical Biotechnology in 2015 at the University of Torino (Italy). I did my Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at the University of Torino finding mechanisms of synthetic lethality of proteasome inhibitors in hematological malignancies in Prof. Roberto Piva’s lab. I was very fascinated by cell therapy and immunology. Thus, during the last months of the Ph.D. I joined the Chiarle's lab at Boston Children’s Hospital as visiting student in 2019. Here, I’m currently doing my postdoc with a fellowship supported by the American-Italian Cancer Foundation (AICF) to find new therapies for neuroblastoma, the most deadly cancer in children. In particular, my research is focused on the generation of ALK chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to specifically target the ALK protein expressed on the surface of neuroblastoma cells. This strategy can eventually be associated with other drugs, including ALK inhibitors, to improve patient’s outcome. Besides medicine research, I like to travel, dance, and try new food.