Tiziana Bonaldi has been elected as a new EMBO member.
EMBO is an organization gathering over 1800 leading researchers promoting excellence in life sciences. EMBO members –together with EMBO associate members– are part of EMBO Council, Committees and Advisory Editorial Boards and work to guide EMBO programs and activities aimed at influencing the direction of European science and strengthening research communities across Europe.
Being elected as an EMBO Member means to be recognized as a scientist who reached scientific excellence and outstanding achievements.
Tiziana Bonaldi joined the dept of experimental oncology of IEO in 2008 as junior group leader, and successfully completed her tenure track in 2015.
By relating the emerging technology of mass spectrometry to the investigation of the molecular mechanisms regulating gene expression, with a special focus on epigenetics, Tiziana Bonaldi carried out the first integrative analysis of transcriptomics and quantitative proteomics, showing a poor correlation between proteome and transcriptome, often ascribed to post-transcriptional regulation. Her numerous scientific achievements include her pioneering mass spectrometry-based analyses of histone post-translational modifications for the identification of hallmarks of cancer; the setup of one of the first proteomic platforms for the global analysis of the K/R-methyl-proteome, which made her becoming a reference in the methyl-proteomics field; the mass spectrometry-based analysis of post-translational modifications from clinical samples, paving the way to the use of mass spectrometry-based analyses in a clinical context, for the discovery of new biomarkers of disease. Moreover, through the exploitation of quantitative mass spectrometry-based analyses, she has contributed to dissecting the mechanism of action of epigenetic inhibitors under development for cancer treatment.
The current main focus of her research group, together with a continuous optimization of the employed technological approaches, is the exploitation of mass spectrometry both to identify novel biomarkers for the stratification of breast and ovarian cancer patients, to distinguish chemosensitive tumors from the malignant, aggressive and chemoresistant ones –which would enable to design more efficient treatment–, as well as to uncover new mechanisms of tumorigenesis and plasticity to be targeted to treat cancer patients.
Congratulations Tiziana Bonaldi!