Biografia

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Current Position

Researcher with a permanent position at the Institute of Biostructures and Bioimaging (IBB) of National Research Council (CNR) in Naples, Italy.

Previous Positions
Apr 2008 -Oct 2011: Researcher with a temporary position at IBB, CNR, Italy.
June 2007 - Nov 2007: Research Fellow at IBB, CNR, Naples, Italy.
May 2003 - Jan 2004: Research Fellow at IBB, CNR, Naples, Italy.

Prizes and awards:
 March 2025: Journal Cover Selection: The research article, De Rosa C et al iScience 2025 was featured as the cover of the Journal (Vol 28, Issue 3, 2025).

 Nov 2015: The publication “De Rosa V, Iommelli F et al Clin Cancer Res. 2015” has been selected to appear in the Highlights Section of Clinical Cancer Research, Vol 21, Nov 15, 2015.

 Sept 2014: The publication “Iommelli F et al Clin Cancer Res 2014” has been selected to appear in the Highlights Section of the Journal, Vol 20, September 15, 2014.

 June 2017: The paper “18F-FLT PET/CT imaging and inhibition of multiple signaling pathways downstream EGFR and MET receptors in resistant NSCLC” Iommelli F et al was selected among the best poster presentations at Annual EANM congress 2017.

 June 2007: Best Poster Presentation Award at The Second International Conference of the ESMI, June 14 - 15, 2007, Naples, Italy

 -National patent for development of novel antimetastatic agent (number 102018000010511, Nov 22, 2018)

Visiting academic positions
Dec 2017 - Mar 2018: Visiting scientist at Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas (USA).
August 2006: Visiting PhD student at Department of Pharmaceutics of the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Science Utrecht University (The Netherlands).

Teaching activities and PhD supervision
Sep 2020-current: Supervisor of bachelor students and for thesis in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology University of Naples, Federico II.
June 2023-Dec 2024: Supervisor of phD students in Medical Biotechnology, University of Chieti-Pescara “G. d’Annunzio”.
2017-2020: Research training seminars for postgraduate students at the Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Federico II University, Naples.

-National and international collaborations and networks that contribute to enhancing the scientific quality and feasibility of the proposal
-Prof. Silvana Del Vecchio, University "Federico II", Naples, Italy, for collaboration on research project on the role of neutrophil-extracellular traps in cancer.
- Prof. Carminia Maria Della Corte, University "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy for collaboration on immune related biomarkers, cancer models for lung cancer and immunotherapy biomarkers.
- Dr. Rosalba Camerlingo, Istituto Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione G. Pascale, 80131 Naples, Italy, for collaboration on biological characterization of lung cancer cells and tumor extracellular vesicles (TEVs) by flow cytometry.
Prof. Irene Russo Krauss, Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, for morphological and size analysis of EVs
Dr. Michele Costanzo, Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology, University of Naples "Federico II" for collaboration on proteomic analysis

- Administrative role and position responsibility
2016-2017: Responsible for chemical-biological laboratory safety at IBB-CNR
July 2025-ongoing: Responsible for IBB-CNR of a collaborative research project conducted in partnership between IBB-CNR and the Department of Precision Medicine at the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli: “Identification of novel liquid biopsy biomarkers for development of innovative therapeutic approaches and selection of cancer patients”

- Editorial activity:
- April 2026-ongoing: Guest Editor for Discovery Oncology-Springer Nature Collection": Small Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Resistance"
- 2025 – ongoing: Frontiers Guest Editor: Role of DNA Damage Repair in Thoracic Cancers
- 2021 – 2022: Guest editor for the special issue "Protein Kinases and Cancer: State of the Art" of International Journal of Molecular Sciences. This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
- 2025 – ongoing: Guest Editor for the special issue “EGFR-Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer”, Cancer Therapy section, of Cancers journal.
- Reviewer for different scientific peer-reviewed journal belonging to the follow editorial groups MDPI, Wiley Online Library, Springer Nature and Elsevier.

Membership of scientific societies:
-Member of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) from November 2021 to today.
-EACR Ambassador from 2025 to 2026.
-Member of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine from January 2016 to January 2018.
-Member of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI) from 2008 to 2010.
- Member of the American association for cancer research (AACR) from June 2025 to December 2025.

Interessi di ricerca

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La dott.ssa Francesca Iommelli svolge la propria attività di ricerca adottando un approccio interdisciplinare che integra competenze di chimica farmaceutica, farmacologia e biologia cellulare allo scopo di identificare e caratterizzare nuovi bersagli molecolari e vie di trasduzione del segnale coinvolte nello sviluppo e nella progressione dei tumori. La sua attività di ricerca è focalizzata sull'elucidazione dei meccanismi che guidano la resistenza ai farmaci antitumorali, con particolare attenzione alla plasticità delle cellule tumorali, alla transizione epitelio-mesenchimale (EMT), alla progressione metastatica e al ruolo delle vescicole extracellulari (EV) nel mediare la comunicazione cellule-cellula all'interno del microambiente tumorale. Lo scopo di questi studi è quello di sviluppare nuove strategie diagnostiche e terapeutiche in grado di inibire o superare la resistenza ai trattamenti e migliorare gli outcome clinici dei pazienti oncologici.

Pubblicazioni scelte

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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Iommelli+F&sort=date