Prof. Arianna Baggiolini, laureate of the prestigious Hofschneider Professorship
Institute of Oncology Research
Prof. Arianna Baggiolini, Group Leader of the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory at the IOR, is receiving the Peter Hans Hofschneider Endowed Professorship from the Experimental Biomedicine Foundation, a prestigious acknowledgment for her innovative research in the field of melanoma brain metastasis.
This prestigious professorship is awarded every two years in honor of the life-time achievements of Prof. Dr. Peter Hans Hofschneider (14 February 1929 - 23 July 2004). The exceptional scientist made crucial contributions to the field of molecular medicine and was a leader in the field of molecular medicine. Some of his major contributions derived from his seminal research on viruses that cause human disease, from hepatitits B virus to measles virus, among others.
Prof. Baggiolini has distinguished herself for her work on melanoma brain metastasis. How do cancer cells originating from the skin adapt to a distant organ, like the brain? How do they remodel the niche, and what’s their impact on brain physiology? These are the questions Prof. Arianna Baggiolini and her team would like to address.
Melanoma, together with breast and lung cancer, is one of the tumors that can frequently metastasize to the brain in advanced patients. How cancer cells manage to survive in distant organs that are deeply different from the organ of origin is still an active field of investigation. With her research, Prof. Baggiolini hopes to shed some light on the mechanisms of cancer survival, adaption, and niche remodeling. “My group and I suspect that targeting the adaption mechanisms of cancer cells and their cellular crosstalk with the microenvironment might be a winning strategy. We are trying to dig deeper into those mechanisms”.
“We congratulate with Arianna Baggiolini for this prestigious achievement, which reflects positively on our Institute” says Prof. Andrea Alimonti, Director of the IOR. “We are proud to have her as part of our team, and I have no doubt that she will continue to lead with excellence in her field” adds.
The Experimental Biomedicine Foundation is organizing a Peter Hans Hofschneider Symposium (https://www.experimentelle-biomedizin.ch/de/), which will take place on June 5th, 2024 at the ETH campus in Zurich. At this symposium, Prof. Baggiolini will present her work together with renowned researchers, including current and former endowed professors.
