Andrea Ghelli

Dr. Andrea Ghelli studies the molecular and functional mechanisms underlying the development of chemo-resistance in ALL patients and, in particular, his research is focused on the understanding of the mechanism that leukemia cells trigger in order to respond to DNA damages. The goal of these studies is to identify novel potential therapeutic targets that can increase the efficacy of conventional antineoplastic agents and to improve, consequently, the therapeutic options for adult patients affected by ALL.

Dr. Andrea Ghelli graduated in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Bologna (2012) and, at the same university, obtained a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (2016). During this period, he demonstrated that ALL cells are characterized by altered functionality of different genes involved in DNA damage response (DDR) pathways in comparison with healthy hematopoietic cells. Dr. Andrea Ghelli continued the study of DNA damage repair mechanisms in acute leukemia first as a research fellow at the Department of Specialized, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine (DIMES) of Bologna (2016-2019) and, subsequently, as a senior researcher at the IRCCS-Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori (IRST) “Dino Amadori” (2019-2021).

Since November 2022, Dr. Andrea Ghelli thanks to winning the FPS Grant 2022 for the project titled “Understanding the role of DNA damage response in the development of chemoresistance and evaluating novel therapeutic strategies to overcome it” has been the head of research activities in the oncohematology group.