AIRC Funding

Two major grants awarded by the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research recognize the research carried out at the “Lazzaro Spallanzani” Department of Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Pavia. Professors Natalia S. Pellegata, Full Professor of Genetics, and Federico Forneris, Full Professor of Molecular Biology, have both received the prestigious 2025 Investigator Grant, five-year funding awarded to established researchers selected through a rigorous international peer-review process based on the high quality and potential impact of their proposed projects. The funded research addresses topics of major relevance to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer.

Professor Forneris’s project, funded with approximately €700,000, focuses on two families of enzymes involved in collagen biosynthesis. Collagens are a family of molecules that are essential to our bodies. Even small alterations in collagen can cause severe diseases, and there is a clear association between these changes and the metastatic progression of many solid tumors. The project combines biochemical and molecular biology investigations with molecular-structure determination by cryogenic electron microscopy and computational simulations—including methods based on artificial intelligence—to provide fundamental insights into some of the mechanisms that drive the metastatic progression of many solid tumors and to develop effective strategies to counteract this process. This information will help improve diagnostic accuracy and enable more precise assessment of the possible course of the disease. In addition, drug-discovery studies may provide new molecules that could eventually be used to develop innovative therapeutic strategies against metastasis.

These awards confirm the high standard of genetic and molecular research conducted within the Department and its contribution to developing new knowledge and therapeutic strategies in oncology.

Read the news article on the University website