Divisions
Irene Franco
Email: franco.irene@hsr.it
Location: Dibit1 A1, Floor 4, Lab 19
Group Leader, Somatic Mutation Mechanisms
Irene Franco holds a PhD (2014) from the University of Torino (Italy), where she studied cellular signaling in different physio-pathological contexts, including inflammation, embryonic development and polycystic kidney disease. She did her post doc at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), where she used next generation sequencing to study genetic mechanisms of aging in different tissues. She obtained a Marie-Curie individual fellowship to move to San Raffaele and continue exploring the age-related accumulation of somatic mutations in the genome of kidney cells. Following this line of research, she established her lab at San Raffaele in 2023, supported by starting grants from ERC, AIRC and Fondazione Cariplo.
2014 PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Torino, Italy
2014 Master degree in Molecular Biotechnology, University of Torino, Italy
2025 - present Assistant professor in Medical Genetics, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele.
2024 - present Group Leader of the Somatic Mutation Mechanisms Unit, Division of Genetics and Cell Biology IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
2023 - 2024 Project Leader of the Somatic Mutation Mechanisms Lab, Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
2022 - 2025 Staff scientist at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
2020 - 2022 Post-doctoral fellow funded by Horizon2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, Alessandra Boletta’s research group, Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy,
2014 - 2020 Post-doctoral fellow, Dept. of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
2014 Post-doctoral research fellow at Kither Biotechnology S.r.l, Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Turin, Italy.
2010 - 2013 PhD student in “Biomedical sciences and human oncology” specialization in “Functional Genomics applied to Translational Research”, at the Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Turin, Italy.
2018 “Erik Rönnbergs award for the study of aging and aging related syndromes” from the Riksbank Jubileumsfond foundation (Sweden).