Age related diseases

Simone Cenci

Simone Cenci

Email: cenci.simone@hsr.it
Location: DIBIT1 A1, Floor 4, Room 18a

Director, Division Genetics and Cell Biology
Group Leader, Age related diseases

Simone Cenci, M.D. is a geriatrician and gerontologist with a strong background in bone pathophysiology and a long-standing interest in the biology of plasma cells, terminally differentiated immune effectors of antibody responses, and their malignant counterpart, the frequent age-onset cancer multiple myeloma. During his post-doctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis (1998-2003), he identified novel immune mechanisms of involutional bone loss.

Then, at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele he gained independence investigating protein homeostasis in plasma cell differentiation, discovering proteotoxic stress as an inbuilt regulator of cell lifespan and antibody production. His lab contributed a deeper understanding of the molecular bases of apoptotic sensitivity of myeloma to proteasome inhibitors, a paradigm of cancer proteostasis addiction, and disclosed an unanticipated role of autophagy in plasma cell ontogeny and humoral immunity.

The Cenci Lab currently explores the autophagic control of protein and organelle homeostasis in malignant plasma cells, revealing unprecedented oncosuppressive mechanisms and new vulnerabilities and therapeutic targets against plasma cell cancers. Enduring interest in bone cell biology and in the skeletal microenvironment affords integrated approaches to explore the vicious relationship of myeloma within the bone marrow.

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