Andrea Alimonti

After graduating from the Sapienza University of Rome, Andrea Alimonti completed his studies in clinical oncology at the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome.
He continued his education in the United States, first at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and then at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he worked in the Pandolfi Laboratory, a cutting-edge cancer research institute.
Prof. Alimonti is currently Director of the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Bellinzona, where he also leads the Molecular Oncology Group. Additionally, he is Group Leader of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory of the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine in Padua (affiliated with the University of Padua), Full Professor of Oncology at USI (Università della Svizzera italiana), of Pharmacology at the University of Padua, and of Experimental Oncology and Translational Cancer Medicine at ETH Zurich.

His research focuses on characterising a novel type of cellular senescence response which is elicited by complete loss of the tumour suppressor PTEN, and on identifying novel compounds with pro-senescence activity.
His ultimate aims are: to develop the concept of pro-senescence therapy for cancer, from experimental findings to clinical medicine, by investigating the efficacy of “pro-senescence” compounds in phase I clinical trials; to combine pro-senescence therapy with other drugs to enhance the anti-tumour activity of the immune system; to identify senescence markers in human tumour samples to be used in clinical medicine.