IFOM ETS – The AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan, Italy; Institute of Molecular Genetics IGM-CNR “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza”, Pavia, ITALY
DNA is important, but RNA is too
Host: A. Marcello
Host: A. Marcello
Abstract Telomere dysfunction is a hallmark and driver of aging and age-related diseases (Rossiello, Nat Cell Bio 2022). We previously reported that damage-induced non-coding RNAs (dincRNAs) are generated at DNA breaks, including dysfunctional telomeres. Their sequence-specific targeting with antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) results in DDR inhibition (Francia, Nature 2012; Michelini, Nat Cell Bio 2017; Pessina, Nat Cell Bio 2019).
We will discuss published and unpublished results supporting this approach in the study and treatment of age-related conditions. We will also discuss how DNA damage in different settings related to aging cancer and, recently viral infections, brings about the process of cellular senescence and its multipronged consequences.
Biosketch Dr. d’Adda di Fagagna is a cell and molecular biologist that studies the involvement of the DNA damage response (DDR) pathways in physiologically-relevant processes such as aging and cancer. Fabrizio obtained his PhD working at ICGEB under the guidance of Mauro Giacca and Arturo Falaschi. As a research associate and postdoc in Cambridge, UK, he discovered the engagement of DDR factors in the maintenance of telomeres and demonstrated that replicative cellular senescence, a form of cell aging, is the outcome of DDR activation caused by the direct recognition of critically short telomeres. He then set up his own research group at IFOM (FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology) in Milan, Italy, in 2003. Here, he demonstrated that oncogene activation is an intrinsically genotoxic event that, by altering DNA replication, causes DDR activation and cellular senescence establishment. Since then, he continued working on several aspects of cellular senescence. His most exciting recent finding is the discovery of an unanticipated role of non-coding RNAs in the direct activation of the DDR. This discovery fuels most of his present investigative efforts. In 2014, he was awarded a permanent position “for exceptional merits” at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Pavia, Italy, where he runs a laboratory. Fabrizio is an EMBO member and received several awards for his work, including the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) Young Cancer Researcher Award and the EMBO Young Investigator Award. He received two ERC advanced grants.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabrizio-d-adda-di-fagagna-76319b4/?originalSubdomain=it
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