Vincenzo Corbo

University of Verona, Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine

Vincenzo Corbo is a molecular biologist who has spent his entire career researching on pancreatic diseases. His research is focused on the identification of genetic and non-genetic mechanisms that provide increased fitness to pancreatic cancer cells. Dr Corbo did his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Aldo Scarpa at the University of Verona (Italy) and made several contributions towards a complete characterization of the genetic abnormalities occurring in pancreatic cancer. In 2013, Dr Corbo joined the Tuveson laboratory (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA) as Post Doctoral fellow. In CSHL, he co-led the development of the pancreatic organoid culture system. He is now member of the Human Cancer Model Initiative, which has been launched in 2016 to provide the research community with fully annotated next-generation cancer models. 

Enza Lonardo

Institute of Genetics and Biophysics Adriano Buzzati-Traverso, Naples, Italy

Dr. Enza Lonardo is a Researcher (Ricercatore CNR) at the Institute of Genetics and Biophysics of CNR (CNR IGB) and the coordinator of the "Gastrointestinal Cancer" group since February 2017. She obtained her Master's Degree in Biotechnology from the University of Naples "FedericoII" in 2003. In 2008, she completed her PhD in "Medicine Biotechnology" at the University of Naples "Federico II," conducting her research at CNR IGB. In 2009, she pursued her postdoctoral research at CNIO in Madrid. In 2012, she continued her postdoctoral work as a Senior Postdocat IRB in Barcelona. In 2017, she joined CNR IGB as a Principal Investigator, establishing her own research program. At CNR IGB, Dr. Lonardo adopts a highly interdisciplinary approach, integrating various fields such as cell biology, imaging, genome editing, physics, and mathematics to address key challenges in cancer research. Her laboratory specifically focuses on investigating the interplay between tumor and stromal cells in pancreatic and colorectalcancer.

Alessandro Carrer

Department of Biology, University of Padova & Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM)

Dr Carrer has >10 years of experience in molecular and cellular biology. After a training in cellular (PhD) and molecular (postdoc) mechanisms that contribute to tumor growth and progression, Dr Carrer established his laboratory at the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) in Padua, Italy. He is interested in studying how metabolic perturbations influence epigenetic regulation and how those contribute to clinical manifestation of a wide spectrum of diseases. In particular, the Carrer lab focuses on signaling functions of acetyl-CoA and downstream metabolites in the mevalonate pathway. 

Elisa Giovannetti

Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Vu University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cancer Pharmacology Lab, Fondazione Pisana per la Scienza, Pisa, Italy

Elisa Giovannetti received her MD and PhD from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Between 2001 and 2004, she worked as a clinical fellow in Pharmacology in the Department of Oncology of Pisa University and contributed to clinical and preclinical studies on the relationship between gene expression/polymorphisms and anticancer drug response in pancreatic and lung cancer. Since 2006 she collaborated with the Department of Medical Oncology at VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to set-up a line of research on molecular mechanisms underlying chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016 and habilitated to Full Professor in 2022. She successfully requested funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, VENI grant), “Marie Curie” European Initiative, Italian Association for Research against Cancer (AIRC, Start-Up grant), Italian Society of Pharmacology, Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA) Foundation, and Dutch Cancer Society (KWF). She is actively involved, as Chair of the Steering Committee, in research projects within the “Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanism Group” group of the EORTC (EORTC- PAMM), as well as in studies of the European Pancreatic Club (EPC) and Italian Association for the Study of the Pancreas (AISP).