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  • Marta Falcinelli

Marta Falcinelli

Marta is a PhD student in Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences working on translational cancer research.

She obtained a B.S. and a M.Sc. in Medical Biotechnology at “La Sapienza”, University of Rome. In 2016, she was awarded the University of Brighton studentship and she joined  the “stress and cancer” group led by Dr Melanie Flint.

She is a member of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and the International Association of Italian Researchers (AIRIcerca).

Email address: M.Falcinelli@brighton.ac.uk

Qualification: PhD 

Timeframe: 2016-2019

Marta-Falcinelli

Marta Falcinelli

Thesis title

Adrenergic stress and immune therapies in ovarian cancer

My research

My research is focusing on the role of adrenergic stress, mediated by Noradrenaline, in order to understand the biological mechanism through which stress affects the adaptive immune response against ovarian cancer.

It has been demonstrated that adrenergic signalling affects tumour burden and invasion in the context of ovarian cancer, but  it also has the capacity of regulating immune functions. I am particularly interested in the activation of T-cells, how they invade the tumour mass and the process through which cancer cells escape the immune response promoting immunosuppression. My project aims to highlight how the adrenergic stress is important in the immunomodulation of the ovarian cancer microenvironment, specifically in T-cell activation and infiltration into the tumour.

The cancer therapies I am studying are based on the immune checkpoint blockade with monoclonal antibodies against PD-1 or PD-L1. This new therapeutic approach to cancer enhances the immune response by blocking the immunosuppressive process activated by the tumour.

The final goal of my project is to have a translational combined therapy for ovarian cancer to restore the immune efficiency and minimize the stress negative effect.

Supervisors

Dr Melanie Flint - University of Brighton, UK

Dr Marcus Allen - University of Brighton, UK

Dr Premal Thaker - Washington University, St Louis, USA

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