Silvia Piconese

Associate Professor

silvia.piconese@uniroma1.it

Academic Appointments

  • 2004 MSc Medical Biotechnologies, University of Milan
  • 2008 PhD Life and Biomolecular Sciences, Open University
  • 2017 Tenure-track position at Sapienza University of Rome
  • 2019 Junior Fellow of SSAS (Sapienza Advanced Superior School)
  • 2020 Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome
  • 2022 National academic qualification as full professor in General Pathology, Laboratory Medicine

Honors and Award

  • 2010 “Guido Berlucchi” prize for young researchers in oncology, “Guido Berlucchi” Foundation, Brescia
  • 2009 “Cecilia Cioffrese” prize for young researchers in the fields of oncology and viral diseases, “Carlo Erba” Foundation, Milan

Scientific interests

Fundamental and translational immunology. Regulatory T cell dynamics in physiology and pathology. T cell responses in oncoimmunology. Immunometabolism, iron metabolism and lipid metabolism in lymphocytes and monocytes.

Contribution to Science

  • discovery that Tregs require iron for their proliferation post-birth and in cancer
  • description of Treg expansion in a genetic hypolipidemia
  • demonstration of a glycolytic-lipogenic circuit governing Treg expansion in cancer
  • observation that type I interferons can modulate Treg dynamics in autoimmunity
  • description of CD8 T cells specific to apoptosis-associated antigens in chronic viral infections and autoimmunity
  • study of OX40 in effector Treg expansion in human cancers
  • characterization of OX40 in Treg function, expansion, and interaction with mast cells

Selected publications

  • Pacella I, […] PICONESE S. Iron capture through CD71 drives perinatal and tumor-associated Treg expansion. JCI Insight. 2024 Jul 2;9(15):e167967.
  • Pinzon Grimaldos, A., […] PICONESE S. ANGPTL3 deficiency associates with the expansion of regulatory T cells with reduced lipid content. Atherosclerosis 2022 Dec;362:38-46.
  • Pacella I, […] PICONESE S. ISG15 protects human Tregs from interferon alpha-induced contraction in a cell-intrinsic fashion. Clin Transl Immunology. 2020 Dec 23;9(12):e1221.
  • Pacella I, […] PICONESE S. Wnt3a neutralization enhances T-cell responses through indirect mechanisms and restrains tumor growth Cancer Immunol Res. 2018 Aug;6(8):953-964.
  • Pacella I, […] PICONESE S. Fatty acid metabolism complements glycolysis in the selective regulatory T cell expansion during tumor growth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Jul 10;115(28):E6546-E6555.

On-going Grants

Project Title Funding source Amount (Euros) Period Role of the PI
Ironic Tregs: competition for iron between Tregs and microbiota in cancer Istituto Pasteur Italia, Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti 40.000 2025-2027 PI (50 % of time)
T-OXic: CD4 T cell-intrinsic roles of BRCA1 in oxidative stress resistance in triple-negative breast cancer AIRC (Italian Association for Cancer Research) 540.000 2023-2027 PI (50 % of time)

Complete list of published work in MyBibliography:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=piconese+s

KEYWORDS:

Treg, immunometabolism, tumor immunology.

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