Alessandro Zannini

Alessandro Zannini


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

7Years (2020-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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21 December 2020 in Cancers
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
ECElena Campaner
Elena Campaner
AZAlessandro Zannini
Alessandro Zannini
MSMariangela Santorsola
Mariangela Santorsola
DBDeborah Bonazza
Deborah Bonazza
CBCristina Bottin
Cristina Bottin
GSGiannino Del Sal
Giannino Del Sal
Tumor organoids are tridimensional cell culture systems that are generated in vitro from surgically resected patients’ tumors. They can be propagated in culture maintaining several features of the tumor of origin, including cellular and genetic heterogeneity, thus representing a promising tool for precision cancer medicine. Here, we established patient-derived tumor organoids (PDOs) from different breast cancer subtypes (luminal A, luminal B, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-enriched, and triple negative). The established model systems showed histological and genomic concordance with parental tumors. However, in PDOs, the ratio of diverse cell populations was frequently different from that originally observed in parental tumors. We showed that tumor organoids represent a valuable system to test the efficacy of standard therapeutic treatments and to identify drug resistant populations within tumors. We also report that inhibitors of mechanosignaling and of Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP) activation can restore chemosensitivity in drug resistant tumor organoids.