Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, PhD
Dr. Sammy Ferri-Borgogno is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Samuel Mok in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), where she is devoted to elucidating immune landscapes and crosstalk signaling networks that interplay in the ovarian tumor microenvironment to modulate clinical outcomes.
Dr. Ferri-Borgogno earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology and subsequently a Summa Cum Laude Master of Science degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Turin, Italy, where she characterized the role of alpha-enolase in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Dr. Ferri-Borgogno studied how cancer biology, -omics technologies and immunology might be integrated to understand host-tumor responses and identify new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for solid tumors under the guidance of Prof. Francesco Novelli during her doctoral training at the University of Turin, Italy. Her thesis work demonstrated the functional relevance of ENO1 inhibition in human cancer cell lines through proteomic, biochemical and functional approaches. Dr. Ferri-Borgogno started her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Anirban Maitra at MDACC with the goal of develop and expand her passionate interest in cancer biology as well as explore a more translational research approach. Here she focused her attention on characterizing the pivotal role of two main epigenetic regulators in pancreatic cancer, ARID1A and MLL3.
Recently, her willing to explore new fields and to expand her research knowledge in cancer biology, made Dr. Ferri-Borgogno to join the laboratory of Dr. Samuel Mok. As a senior post-doctoral fellow in the lab she has primary responsibility for all research initiatives and projects related to clarify the molecular/cellular interactions existing between stromal cells and cancer immunity to identify markers in the ovarian tumor microenvironment that can simultaneously normalize aberrant angiogenesis and increase tumor immune cell activation and infiltration, thus resulting in significant treatment outcomes. To demonstrate her hard work in the field of ovarian cancer, and recognize her research excellence, Dr. Ferri-Borgogno was awarded the 2020 Diane Denson Tobola Fellowship in Ovarian Cancer Research at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
With the support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, Dr. Ferri-Borgogno will utilize cutting-edge technologies such as Spatial Transcriptomics (ST) and Imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to identify biomarkers and molecular mechanisms associated with chemoresistance in ovarian cancer.