Position: Full Professor of Pathology, Medical School, University of Padova
Head of Viral Oncology Unit, IOV-IRCCS, Padova
Foreign working experiences: National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA, Laboratory of Viral Carcinogenesis (Prof. P Fischinger, Head) in 1980, and Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology ( Prof. R. Gallo, Head) in 1984, 1985, 1988.
Major research interests: Anita De Rossi has long been involved in studying oncogenic retroviruses. Since 1983, her research has shifted from murine to human retroviruses in both experimental models and clinical settings. Significant progress has been made in understanding the vertical transmission and disease progression of pediatric HIV infection. Her studies in this field address the virological and immunological correlates of pediatric disease outcomes and are some of the first to indicate that HIV infection from mother-to-child mainly occurs during the intrapartum period and that host factors may restrict HIV infection (Aids 1994; Aids 1995; J Clin Invest 1996). Her interest has expanded to studying tumors in immunocompromised patients, with particular regard to EBV-related lymphomagenesis in HIV-infected or transplant patients (Blood 1996; Cancer Letter 2015), and more recently to telomere/telomerase interplay in virus-driven and virus-independent malignancies. Her studies in this field are some of the first to indicate that LMP1, the viral protein of EBV, activates at transcriptional level TERT, the catalytic component of telomerase (J Virol 2008) Clin Cancer Res 2013), and that quantification of TERT in plasma may represent a minimally invasive tool for monitoring malignancies (Clin Cancer Res 2008) and response to therapy (Ann Surg Oncol 2012). In addition, her studies provide the rationale for considering inhibition of TERT a useful approach for setting up new therapeutic strategies (Clin Cancer Res ,2013; Cell Death Dis, 2015).