Roberta Maestro was born in Aviano (PN) 13/07/1962. She is currently serving as Director of the Unit of Experimental Oncology 1 at the CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute (Aviano-PN- Italy). She graduated in Biology at University of Padova (summa cum laude) in 1986 and earned the Specialty in Medical Genetics at the University of Ferrara in 1993 (summa cum laude). She has been working at the CRO National Cancer Institute since 1997, as a fellow first and then as a staff member. She was visiting scientist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory New-York from 1995 to 1998. Since 2005 she is the Director of the Unit of Experimental Oncology 1 at the CRO which includes 7 staff members (PhD), 4 technicians and several PhD students and PostDocs.
The research activity of the Unit of that she leads mostly focuses on the dissection of the genetic events involved in cancer development and progression. In particular, major topics of the Unit are: the mechanisms of bypass of oncogene-induced apoptosis and senescence, EMT genes and oncogenic stress, genetic alterations associated to sensitivity/resistance to target therapies, genetics of hereditary tumors and sarcomas. The laboratory benefits from long-lasting national and international collaborations: at the moment two members of the Unit are visiting scientists in the laboratory of Gregory J Hannon (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) and Igor Jurisica (Toronto University).

Education
12/12/86 PhD Biology, University of Padova (summa cum laude)
29/10/93 Speciality in Medical Genetics, University of Ferrara (summa cum laude)
2000 Cold Spring Harbor Course on Gene Transcription
2007 Master in Health Economics, Roma
2010 Cold Spring Harbor Course on Next Generation Sequencing

Editorial Board – Memberships - Awards
Gold Medal for Scientific Merits by the President of the Italian Republic (2003)
Member of the Cold Spring Harbor Alumni Association
Member of the Italian Cancer Society (SIC)
Member of AIRC Scientific Committee (form 1998 to 2001)
Member of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Member of the CRO Scientific Committee
Member of the Editorial Board of Clinical Sarcoma Research
Member of the Editorial Board of Tumori

1985-1986: Undergraduate student - Department of Biology, University of Padova. Field of study: Cancer cytogenetics
1987 – 1989 Fellow at the CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute. Field of study: Molecular Oncology.
1990-1995 Staff scientist at the CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute. Field of study: Genetics of sarcomas and head and neck cancers.
1995- 1998. Visiting Scientist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY). Field of study: oncogene-induced apoptosis and senescence.
2005- present. Director of the Unit of Experimental Oncology 1 at the CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute (Aviano-PN-Italy). Field of study: Cancer genetics and genomics; Mechanisms of bypass of oncogene-induced apoptosis and senescence; EMT genes and oncogenic stress; Mechanisms of resistance/sensitivity to target therapies; Genetics of hereditary cancers and sarcomas.

Roberta Maestro is author of more than 60 peer reviewed articles indexed in PubMed.
Her publications have received approximately 2680 citations with an H index of 26.
Among her most quoted papers are:
[Di Micco R, Fumagalli M, Cicalese A, Piccinin S, Gasparini P, Luise C, Schurra C, Garre' M, Nuciforo PG, Bensimon A, Maestro R, Pelicci PG, d'Adda di Fagagna F. Oncogene-induced senescence is a DNA damage response triggered by DNA hyper-replication. Nature. 2006 Nov 30;444(7119):638-42] with 362 citations, and [Hudson JD, Shoaibi MA, Maestro R, Carnero A, Hannon GJ, Beach DH. A Proinflammatory Cytokine Inhibits p53 Tumor Suppressor Activity. J Exp Med 1999 Nov 15; 190(10):1375-1382] with 317 citations. [Maestro, R., Dei Tos A.P., Hamamori, Y., Krasnokutsy, S., Sartorelli, V., Kedes, L., Doglioni, C., Beach, D.H., Hannon, G.J. Twist is a potential oncogene that inhibits apoptosis. Genes & Dev. 1999 Sept 1; 13 (17): 2207-2217], with 246 citations, is her most quoted paper as a first author.
Her most quoted last author paper [Seger YR, Garcia-Cao M, Piccinin S, Cunsolo CL, Doglioni C, Blasco MA, Hannon GJ, Maestro R. Transformation of normal human cells in the absence of telomerase activation. Cancer Cell. 2002 Nov;2(5):401-13] ranks 10th with 93 quotes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Maestro%20R%20NOT%20del-Maestro%20NOT%20Maestro-RD%20or%20Maestra%20R

Five more recent publications excluding reviews
Santarosa M, Del Col L, Viel A, Bivi N, D'Ambrosio C, Scaloni A, Tell G, Maestro R. BRCA1 modulates the expression of hnRNPA2B1 and KHSRP. Cell Cycle. 2010 Dec 1;9(23):4666-73

Pastrello C, Polesel J, Della Puppa L, Viel A, Maestro R. Association between hsa-mir-146a genotype and tumor age-of-onset in BRCA1/BRCA2-negative familial breast and ovarian cancer patients. Carcinogenesis. 2010 Dec;31(12):2124-6.

Santarosa M, Del Col L, Tonin E, Caragnano A, Viel A, Maestro R. Premature senescence is a major response to DNA cross-linking agents in BRCA1-defective cells: implication for tailored treatments of BRCA1 mutation carriers. Mol Cancer Ther. 2009 Apr;8(4):844-54.

Gasparotto D, Rossi S, Bearzi I, Doglioni C, Marzotto A, Hornick JL, Grizzo A, Sartor C, Mandolesi A, Sciot R, Debiec-Rychter M, Dei Tos AP, Maestro R. Multiple Primary Sporadic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST) In The Adult: An Underestimated Entity. Clin Cancer Res Sep 15, 2008; 14 (18).

S Ansieau, J Bastid, A Doreau, AP Morel, BP Boichet, C Thomas, F Fauvet, I Puisieux, C Doglioni, S Piccinin, R Maestro, T Voeltzel, A Selmi, S Valseisa-Wittman, C Caron de Fromentel, A Puisieux. Induction of EMT by Twist proteins as a collateral effect of tumor promoting inactivation of premature senescence Cancer Cell, 2008 Jul 8;14(1):79-89.

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