Descrizione del progetto
Ottimizzare l’approccio della medicina personalizzata nel trattamento del cancro alle ovaie
La medicina personalizzata (MP) è una nuova forma di assistenza medica che personalizza il trattamento alla malattia del paziente. I vantaggi di questo approccio sono riconosciuti, ma le sue applicazioni cliniche sono limitate a causa della complessità e dei costi elevati. Il progetto ITHACA, finanziato dall’UE, mira a sviluppare una piattaforma di MP che comprenda tecniche innovative in vitro, un simulatore computazionale avanzato e dati clinici standard per lo screening efficiente delle terapie per il cancro alle ovaie e l’ottimizzazione del trattamento per ciascun paziente. Questo approccio sarà convalidato utilizzando linee cellulari standard e primarie per determinare il risultato di una terapia paziente-specifica nelle donne con cancro alle ovaie. I risultati del progetto forniranno alla comunità scientifica strumenti inestimabili per ulteriori applicazioni di MP nella clinica.
Obiettivo
Personalised medicine (PM) is a novel approach to medical care that customises each treatment not just to the disease but also to the patient. While the advantages of this framework are widely recognised and its development is acknowledged as a fundamental societal challenge by the H2020 program, clinical applications are still limited, due to the increased complexity and costs, with respect to the current standard of care. ITHACA aims at developing an innovative PM toolkit that, relying on an advanced computational simulator, innovative in-vitro techniques and standard clinical data could provide an efficient and ethical framework for the screening of different ovarian cancer therapies and the identification of the most effective for each subject. This project builds on my experience with computational modelling and multidisciplinary research environments, to develop a programmable in-silico simulator capable of reproducing the patient-specific response to standard and novel ovarian cancer treatments. This tool will be extensively validated with both standard and primary cell lines and will then be used to determine patient-specific therapy outcome (RECIST 1.1 criteria) in women affected by ovarian cancer. Additionally it will be integrated in a novel bioreactor system for the in-vitro study of metastasization in HGSC. This compound device will allow for automatic treatment optimisation within an accurate and unique experimental model for this disease, and will thus provide an effective platform for personalised treatments development. Funding of this action will be a fundamental opportunity of career development, that will support my training in a highly innovative, interdisciplinary field while fostering the achievement of professional independence. Additionally the results of ITHACA will lead to high profile, impactful publications and provide the scientific community with enabling tools for the extensive application of PM in the clinic.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
40126 Bologna
Italia