Dr. Francesco Verona first joined the Cellular and Molecular Oncology Laboratory, led by Professor Giorgio Stassi, during his master’s studies in 2017. During this period, he developed methodologies to investigate the molecular mechanisms driving tumor progression in neuroblastoma and colon cancer through both in vitro and in vivo approaches. In 2019, he earned his Master’s degree cum laude in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine from the University of Palermo, defending a thesis titled "Neuroblastoma and microenvironment: Identification and characterization of tumor-derived mesenchymal stem cells." Dr. Verona completed his PhD in Molecular and Clinical Medicine at the University of Palermo in 2024. His doctoral research, titled "The role of driver mutations in the initiation and progression of thyroid cancer," identified thyroid progenitor cells as the cells of origin for follicular cell-derived thyroid malignancies. Following his PhD, he was appointed as a Postdoctoral Fellow within the same laboratory in June 2024. In March 2025, he published a significant study in Molecular Cancer regarding the epigenetic deregulation of p53 by the methyltransferase SETD8 in colon cancer, specifically examining its crosstalk with macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME). His current research focuses on the communication between colon cancer stem cells and the TME in promoting tumor progression.