Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli
The Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute is a highly specialised hospital and research institute in the field of orthopaedics and traumatology. As IRCCS (title granted by the Italian Ministry of Health to biomedical institutions of relevant national interest), the mission of the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute is the development of translational research on musculoskeletal disorders. The institute's strength lies in the close integration between the treatment activities and the scientific research activities operating in 10 research laboratories. The institute is also a university teaching centre.
The research activity of the Experimental Oncology Laboratory is aimed to improve knowledge on musculoskeletal tumors and to develop new biomolecular approaches for optimizing diagnosis and treatment of soft-tissue and bone sarcomas. Research can be summarized as follows:
- Obtain genetic profiling of bone tumors as a preparatory activity for the design of personalized therapies.
- Develop new experimental models (3D spheroids, patient-derived xenografts) that reflect the genetic and biological characteristics of the tumor of origin and therefore allow functional and pharmacological studies of greater value than traditional models.
- Study the interaction between tumor cell and bone microenvironment both in basal conditions and after treatment with drugs capable of damaging DNA.
- Evaluate epigenetic mediators of relevance in bone sarcomas and the efficacy of drugs with an impact on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression as a basis for the design of differentiating therapies.
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