2023-2026 fellowship winner: Elisa Marmocchi

La dr.ssa Elisa Marmocchi worked on the project “Development of immuno-oncology strategies for immunologically ‘cold’ tumors”, in the Armenise-Harvard Cancer Biology & Genetics, Laboratory, direct by Prof. Andrea Lunardi.

This project aims to develop immuno-oncological strategies for ‘cold’ tumours – tumours that manage to remain invisible or impervious to the immune system.

These include prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer among men worldwide – representing around 15% of all cancers diagnosed in men – and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men.

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What does Elisa’s project involve?

Immuno-oncology has changed cancer treatment, but it doesn’t work for everyone yet. Some tumors in fact are ‘immunologically cold’ – they are able to hide from our immune cells, avoiding attack.

Thanks to the Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro PhD Fellowship, Dr. Elisa Marmocchi, together with the team led by Professors Lunardi, Romanel and Grandi (CIBIO, University of Trento), in close collaboration with Dr. Ternette (University of Oxford), is working to overcome this challenge with a two-level strategy:

• To identify inflammatory signals that act as a ‘decoy’, attracting immune cells (T cells and natural killer cells) into the tumour.
• Enhancing these cells through genetic engineering (CAR-T and CAR-NK) and vaccine-based approaches, training them to recognise and destroy cancer.