The R2NiTO team
Such ordinary people.
Matteo Cereda
Matteo was born in Lecco (IT) and graduated in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2005. He began his research career at the IRCCS E. Medea Institute, where he modeled the impact of genetic variation on alternative splicing.
He obtained a Ph.D. in Complex Systems in Genomics from the University of Turin in 2010, training in Jernej Ule's group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK), focusing on protein–RNA interactions.
Following his doctoral studies, Matteo pursued postdoctoral research at the European Institute of Oncology and later at King's College London in Francesca Ciccarelli's group, investigating tumor evolution, heterogeneity, and drug resistance.
In 2017, he received his first AIRC grant to study the deregulation of alternative splicing in cancer and established the Cancer Genomics and Bioinformatics Laboratory at the Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine. Since 2021, he has been Associate Professor at the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology at the University of Milan.
Since October 2025, Matteo leads the RNA regulatory network in translational oncology laboratory at IFOM ETS – the AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology. His interdisciplinary research bridges computational and molecular biology with translational oncology, integrating advanced analytical frameworks with high-resolution molecular technologies such as large-scale third-generation sequencing.
- RNA Regulatory Networks
- Tumor plasticity
- Big Data analysis
Mariachiara Grieco
Mariachiara graduated in Bioinformatics for Computational Genomics at the University of Milan and Polytechnic University of Milan in 2022 with a dissertation on MYC-driven co- and post-transcriptional regulation in prostate cancer. She analyzed long-read direct mRNA sequencing data from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Since October 2022 she joined the Ph.D. program at SEMM.
- RNA biology
- Genomic instability
- Long-read sequencing
Tommaso Becchi
Tommaso graduated in Bioinformatics at the University of Bologna in 2021 with a new algorithm for gene co-expression networks reconstruction. He joined the lab in 2023 as a research fellow and then entered SEMM.
- RNA biology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Long-read sequencing
Federica Giuliano
- Medical Oncology
- RNA biology
- Personalized medicine
Vivian P. Lagkada
- RNA biology
- KRAS biology
- Drug resistance
Gabriele Boscagli
Gabriele graduated in Bioinformatics at the University of Bologna in 2024 with a thesis on Spatial Transcriptomics for the analysis of mouse lung adenocarcinoma datasets. He joined the lab in late 2024.
- RNA biology
- Spatial transcriptomics
- Artificial intelligence
Gabriele Locci
- Deep Learning
- RNA biology
- Alternative splicing
Kehan Chen
- RNA biology
- Alternative splicing
Debora Caprella
Debora graduated in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Sapienza University with a dissertation on whole exome sequencing in the diagnosis of rare diseases. Currently a PhD student at the school of biomedical sciences and oncology at the University of Turin.
- RNA biology
- KRAS biology
- Omics
Irene Trevisi
She is now research fellow at the MBC Molecular Biotechnology Center in Turin.
Valeria Difilippo
She keeps working in clinical bioinformatics under the supervision of Elisa Tirtei, MD, PhD at Regina Margherita Children's Hospital in Turin.
Laura Ruffoni
Laura contributed to the genetic characterization of KRAS G12C genetic models. She now moved to Roche
Erika Ballabio
Raffaella Ergasti
Raffaella's research focused on ovarian cancer, RNA biology, and personalized medicine.
Alessia Avon
Federica Schieppati
Federica participated in the genomic analyses of pediatric sarcomas of patients enrolled within the SARGEN-ITA trial (NCT04621201).
Serena Peirone
Serena provided a strong contribution with her bioinformatics analyses in the majority of our research projects since the opening of the lab. She is now teacher at secondary high school!
Mara Maldotti
Mara managed the experimental studies, contributing to the development and test of ASOs to challenge new RNA targets. She is now part of grant office at the University of Milan.
Francesca Priante
Francesca contributed to the development of a novel version of RNAmotifs and participated in identifying novel actionable RNA defects in bone sarcomas.
Sarah Perrone
Sarah contributed to the development of a version of GSECA for single cell RNA sequencing data and analyzed medulloblastoma transcriptomes upon chemotherapy. She is now in industry!
Shruti Sinha
Shruti analyzed direct mRNA Nanopore sequencing data in prostate cancer. She is now Bioinformatics Scientist at Al Jalila Children's Hospital in Dubai!
Livia Caizzi
Livia contributed to the experimental validations of FOXA1-mediated regulation of alternative splicing in prostate cancer. She is now post-doc in the Epigenetics Lab of Prof Oliviero at the University of Turin!
Marco Del Giudice
Marco contributed to identifying FOXA1 as the key controller of alternative splicing in prostate cancer. He is now data scientist in industry!
Alberto Rissone
Alberto contributed to the improvement of RNAmotifs. He is data scientist in industry!
Lucilla Bracco
Lucilla analyzed DNA somatic alterations in pediatric Ewing's sarcoma.
Fabiola Varese
Fabiola worked on long-read Oxford Nanopore and traditional short-read Illumina sequencing approaches. She now moved to pharma!
Jessica Giordano
Jessica was involved in transcriptomic analyses of breast cancer chemoresistant tumors. She is now professor at secondary high school and still collaborating with us!
Greta Romano
Greta worked on tumor evolution characterization within the SARGEN-ITA trial. She is now enrolled in postgraduate school of Medicine at the University of Parma.
Federica Gaudino
Federica was the first biologist post-doc in our lab. She contributed to settling our experimental biology lab and implementing the Oxford Nanopore Technologies direct mRNA protocol. She is now teacher at secondary high school!
R2NiTO friends
We discuss our ideas with talented people.
Chiara Ambrogio
Uberto Pozzoli
Prabhakar Rajan
Davide Cacchiarelli
Francesca Ciccarelli