Research overview
Professor Luca Magnani, Breast Epigenetic Plasticity and Evolution Team
Oestrogen Receptor Positive (ER+) breast cancer, the most diagnosed human cancer, often relapses years after curative surgery, a phenomenon lacking mechanistic explanations. Professor Magnani's research hypothesises that dormancy in ER+ cells is an adaptive state preceding cancer transformation and critical during therapy adaptation.
The laboratory has two primary aims:
- devising methods to eliminate dormant ER+ cancer cells during therapy
- unravelling the role of epigenetic changes before tumour transformation.
By exploring these uncharted territories, the research aims to discover novel drug targets and unravel the basic biology driving breast cell transformation and evolution. The ultimate goal is translational, with the potential to reduce cancer incidence and drug-resistant relapse, thereby improving patient outcomes in ER+ breast cancer.