Giancarlo Vecchio, Program Co-ordinator
 vecchio@unina.it

Professor of Oncology at the Dipartimento di Biologia e Patologia Cellulare e Molecolare ‘L. Califano’ at the Università di Napoli Federico II.
He is associate editor of Cancer Research, Oncology Research and the International Journal of Oncology. Has been Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, from 1995 to 1999. Is a national member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei). His research activity has focused on the mechanisms of neoplastic transformation of epithelial cells and, in particular, on the mechanisms of human thyroid neoplasia.

Research interests
a) The activity of the RET tyrosine kinase oncogenic protein, its signal transduction pathway and the search for drugs that inhibit its action in neoplastic cells.
b) The production of monoclonal antibodies directed against the extracellular portion of the RET kinase aimed at the production of biologically active molecules capable of
inhibiting RET activity.
c) The antineoplastic activity of bovine and human ribonucleases.

Selected publications
Spalletti-Cernia D, Sorrentino R, Di Gaetano S, Piccoli R, Santoro M, D'Alessio G, Laccetti P, Vecchio G. Highly selective toxic and proapoptotic effects of two dimeric ribonucleases compared to the effects of doxorubicin. Br J Cancer 2004;90:270–7.

Celetti A, Cerrato A, Merolla F, Vitagliano D, Vecchio G, Grieco M. H4(D10S170), a gene frequently rearranged with RET in papillary thyroid carcinomas: functional characterization. Oncogene 2004;23:109–21.

Portella G, Pacelli R, Libertini S, Cella L, Vecchio G, Salvatore M, Fusco A. Onyx-015 enhances radiation-induced death of human anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cells. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003;88:5027–32.

Spalletti-Cernia D, Sorrentino R, Di Gaetano S, Arciello A, Garbi C, Piccoli R, D'alessio G, Vecchio G, Laccetti P, Santoro M. Antineoplastic ribonucleases selectively kill thyroid carcinoma cells via caspase-mediated induction of apoptosis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003;88:2900–7.

Carlomagno F, Vitagliano D, Guida T, Ciardiello F, Tortora G, Vecchio G, Ryan AJ, Fontanini G, Fusco A, Santoro M. ZD6474, an orally available inhibitor of KDR tyrosine kinase activity, efficiently blocks oncogenic RET kinases. Cancer Res 2002;62:7284–90.

Salvatore G, Nagata S, Billaud M, Santoro M, Vecchio G, Pastan I. Generation and characterization of novel monoclonal antibodies to the Ret receptor tyrosine kinase. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2002;294:813–7.

 
International Doctorate Program
in Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology
Università di Napoli - Federico II