Luca Tiberi, 2016

Luca Tiberi

Career Development Award Project Title

“Studying neurogenesis to unveil molecular and cellular basis of brain cancer”, 2016

Who he is

Luca Tiberi grew up in Falconara nearby the Adriatic sea in the East Coast of Italy. His passion for research started during his undergraduate studies at the University of Bologna, where in 2004 he completed his Master Degree in Medical Biotechnology (Franceschi lab).

In 2004 he moved to Trieste where he started a Ph.D in Molecoler Oncology  (Del Sal lab) and he focused his reaserch on the molecular biology of  breast cancer. After his Ph.D moved to Belgium in the lab of Prof. Vanderhaeghen to study brain cancer and development. Notably, in 2016 he was awarded the prestigiouse ALVARENGA, DE PIAUHY prize from the Belgian Royal Academy  for his work on Pediatric Brain Cancer.

He returned to Italy in 2016 thanks to the Armenise Harvard Career Development Award and now he leads a young research group focused on brain cancer at CIBIO, the Center for Integrative Biology in Trento.

What he does

Luca Tiberi’ s work aims to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms of pediatric brain cancer, the deadliest cancers in children. In particular, he is studying Medulloblastoma: the most common brain cancer affecting children that remains responsible for a high percentage of mortality among cancer patients.

He is working on deciphering the link between normal development and oncogenesis taking advantage of different in-vitro and in-vivo genetically engineered models. Moreover, part of his research is focused on identifying new therapeutic targets able to reduce the malignant potential of the tumor and to overcome its ability to develop resistance against specific treatments.