Rosa Bernardi graduated in Biology and obtained her Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Pavia, Italy. She then moved to the United States for her post-doctoral training. During her first post-doc at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research of Temple University in Philadelphia, she studied the involvement of the oncogenic c-Myc-Cdc25A axis in the differentiation block that typifies acute myeloid leukemia. She then moved to New York City, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she completed her second post-doctoral training. There, she investigated the function of stress responsive pathways in cancer, with a specific focus on the promyelocytic leukemia PML gene and hypoxia-activated cellular responses. During these studies, she was awarded a K01 award from the US National Cancer Institute, NIH, to promote her transition to independence. Whilst performing research covered by this award, she moved to Boston, to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, where she become Research Associate and Instructor.

In 2008 she was awarded a Career Development Award by the Giovanni Armenise Harvard Foundation to establish her independent research group and she returned to Italy with a position as Junior Principal Investigator at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, where she has conducted research ever since.

At San Raffaele, she continues to study how stress responsive mechanisms are coopted by oncogenic pathways to promote maladaptive functions necessary for tumor maintenance and how these mechanisms can be targeted for the treatment of solid and hematologic malignancies.

In 2023 she became Director of the Division of Experimental Oncology of San Raffaele Scientific Institute.

Click here to view our publications