Roberta Benetti
Roberta Benetti
e-mail:
affiliation: LNCIB - Laboratorio Nazionale CIB, Trieste
research area(s): Cancer Biology, Stem Cells And Regenerative Medicine
Course: Molecular Biomedicine
University/Istitution: Università di Trieste
2007-now: Junior groupleader (Epigenetic Group) at the Laboratorio Nazionale CIB (LNCIB).
Researcher Position at University of Udine, Department “Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche”.
2005-2008:Staff Scientist, Telomeres and Telomerase Group; Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid. Supervisor: Maria Blasco
Research topic: telomeres, epigenetics, cancer and aging.
2002-2004: AIRC (Italian Association for Cancer Research) post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratorio Nazionale CIB (LNCIB), Trieste, Italy. Research topic: p53, beta-catenin pathways
2001: PhD degree in Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology at SISSA
(International School of Advanced Studies).
1997-2001: SISSA/ISAS (International School of Advanced Studies, Trieste,
Italy) PhD work on Molecular Genetics. Research Topic: pathways regulating susceptibility to p53-dependent apoptosis; cancer
Our research is aimed at the better understanding of the role of tumor-suppressor pathways in cancer and stem cell biology.
Currently we focus our activities on the identification of miRNAs that regulate the Retinoblastoma pathway and understanding their role in controlling proliferation, cell differentiation and the modulation of chromatin structure.
Muñoz P, Blanco R, de Carcer G, Schoeftner S, Benetti R, Flores JM, Malumbres M, Blasco MA “TRF1 controls telomere length and mitotic fidelity in epithelial homeostasis” Mol Cell Biol. 2009Jan 5.

Benetti R, Schoeftner S, Muñoz P, Blasco MA. “Role of TRF2 in the assembly of telomeric
chromatin.” Cell Cycle. 2008 Nov 1;7(21):3461-8. Epub 2008 Nov 12

Benetti R, Gonzalo S, Jaco I, Muñoz P, Gonzalez S, Schoeftner S, Murchison E, Andl T, Chen T, Klatt P, Li E, Serrano M, Millar S, Hannon G, Blasco MA. “A mammalian microRNA cluster controls DNA methylation and telomere recombination via Rbl2-dependent regulation of DNA methyltransferases” Nature Molecular Structural Biology, 2008 Mar;15(3):268-79.

Benetti, R., Gonzalo, S., Jaco, I., Schotta, G., Klatt, P., Jenuwein, T., and Blasco, M.. “Suv4-20h deficiency results in telomere elongation and derepression of telomere recombination” J Cell Biol 2007 Sep 10;178(6):925-36.

Benetti, R. *, Garcia Cao, M. *, Blasco, M. “Telomere regulate epigenetic status of mammalian telomeres and subtelomers”, Nature Genetics, 39(2): 243-250 (2007)

Flores, I., Benetti, R., Blasco, MA. “Telomerase regulation and stem cell behaviour” Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2006 Jun;18(3):254-60. Epub 2006 Apr 17. Review.
Project Title:
Coding and non-coding genes in tumor suppression
to be discussed with applicants