Biography
- Division:
- Division of Translational and Clinical Sciences – DTCS
- Review Branch:
- Cancer Diagnosis, Prevention & Therapeutics – CDPT
- Study Section:
- Clinical Oncology – CONC
Dr. Laura Asnaghi received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry from the University of Milan in Italy. She subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, before joining the Department of Pathology of Johns Hopkins University, where she was a research faculty in the area of ocular oncology. Her main research efforts were focused on understanding the molecular drivers and signaling pathways associated with tumor progression and invasion in retinoblastoma, uveal (ocular) melanoma and conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma. She demonstrated a critical role for Notch and hypoxia in promoting progression and regulating response to treatment in uveal melanoma and retinoblastoma. She also found that Nodal/TGF-β pathway is highly active in invasive retinoblastomas and inhibition of this signaling potently reduced invasion and proliferation in this pediatric intraocular tumor.
