Targeting the m6A players as a new therapeutic approach in neuroblastoma

Abstract

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most frequent extracranial solid tumor in children, accounting for 15% of all childhood cancer deaths. Although the 5-year survival rate of patients with high-risk disease has increased in recent decades, NB remains a challenge in pediatric oncology, and identifying novel therapeutic targets and agents is an urgent clinical need. N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most abundant post-transcriptional mRNA modification in mammals, is tightly regulated by 'writers' and 'erasers', which deposit and remove the modification, respectively, and by 'readers', which can detect changes in mRNA modification status and influence downstream cellular processes. m6A and related proteins have been found frequently altered in different tumors and may represent a good therapeutic target also in NB.

Bio

After graduating in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (University of Padua) and completing her PhD in Biomolecular Sciences (University of Trento, 2018), Denise Sighel dedicated her postdoctoral years to uncovering new treatments for glioblastoma and neuroblastoma. She is currently a tenure-track researcher at the University of Trento, where she is establishing her own lab aimed at exploring innovative druggable targets to drive glioblastoma differentiation, supported by a grant funded by the Italian National Cancer Research Foundation.

Hosted by Pharmacology Applied to Drug Discovery Group, CiMUS

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