Our team
Our team focuses on designing in vivo genetic tools to investigate the mechanism whereby cancer cells evade the immune system and resist to therapy.
Mario Leonardo Squadrito, Ph.D
Principal Investigator
Mario Leonardo Squadrito obtained a PhD degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the San Raffaele University (Milan, IT) and the Open University (UK); in the course of his PhD studies, he identified and characterized of a new microRNA, miR-511-3p, highly expressed in tumor-associated macrophages. In 2012, he joined the EPFL (Lausanne, CH) where he identified a mechanism whereby miRNAs are sorted to microvesicles and trasfer to acceptor cells. He also designed new strategies to genetically reprogram TAMs to activate immune functions. He also invented a platform to exploit circulating microvesicles as a source of tumor antigens for innovative tumor vaccines. Since 2024, he has been appointed Group Leader at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Milan, Italy.
Chiara Bresesti, Ph.D
POst Doc
Chiara Bresesti earned her Bachelor’s degree in Medical Biotechnology in 2017 from Università degli Studi di Milano, with an experimental thesis focused on characterizing a novel pathogenic variant of the LH/CG receptor. In 2020, she completed a double degree program, earning a Master’s Degree in Medical Biotechnology (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca) and Genetics (Université de Paris). During her Master’s thesis, she characterized the structure of an lncRNA involved in melanoma aggressiveness and its effect on the tumor microenvironment. Chiara completed her PhD in Molecular Medicine at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, with a focus on Basic and Applied Immunology and Oncology, at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy. She is currently pursuing her scientific career as a post-doctoral researcher.
Giovanna Giacca, M.D Ph.D
Post Doc
Giovanna Giacca graduated from the International MD Program at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. Giovanna joined the Cancer Gene Therapy Unit in 2021 for her thesis internship. During her studies, Giovanna investigated an in vivo gene therapy platform to engineer macrophages within liver metastases to express proinflammatory molecules, along with developing a novel humanised murine model to test gene therapy products. In 2026, she completed her PhD in Gene and Cell Therapy at San Raffaele University, focusing on the development of antitumoral therapeutic strategies employing lentiviral vectors in vivo.
Federico Rossari, M.D Ph.D
Post Doc - Resident Doctor
Federico Rossari is a physician–scientist and Medical Oncology Fellow at IRCCS San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan. His work in the lab focuses on T-cell engineering and in vivo gene delivery strategies for the treatment of solid tumors, with a particular interest in bridging laboratory research and clinical practice to enable translational development of advanced therapies. He completed his medical training at the University of Pisa and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, and obtained his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Luigi Naldini at SR-Tiget, where he worked on macrophage- and T cell–based approaches to modulate the tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma. In 2025, he was a visiting research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he expanded his work on in vivo CAR-T cell engineering.
Sara Breggion, M.Sc
PHD student
Sara Breggion obtained her Master’s Degree in Biotechnology and Medical Biology from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in 2023. During her Master’s thesis at SR-TIGET, she contributed to the characterization of a pathogenic STING variant and to the investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying SAVI disease. In 2023, she joined the International PhD Course in Molecular Medicine and she started her project in the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting Unit. Her current research focuses on the development of inducible systems for in vivo macrophage engineering aimed at modulating the tumor microenvironment for therapeutic applications.
Eleonora Carito, M.Sc
PHD student
Eleonora Carito earned her master’s degree in industrial Biotechnology from the University of Milan-Bicocca in 2024. During her master’s thesis, she joined the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting Unit, where she contributed to the development of an mRNA co-packaging technology in lentiviral vectors. Later that year, she enrolled in the International PhD Program in Molecular Medicine at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. Her current research is centered on optimizing lentiviral-based systems to regulate transgene expression for in vivo immune cell engineering, with a focus on macrophage engineering to therapeutically modulate the tumor microenvironment.
Deborah Ilaria Ambrosecchia
Research Assistant
Deborah Ilaria Ambrosecchia obtained her Master’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Turin, with a strong focus on translational research in cancer and gene therapy. She has been working as a Research Assistant at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-TIGET) since 2022, and in 2026 she joined the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting Unit. She has developed solid expertise in tumor microenvironment studies, targeted gene therapy and immunotherapeutic strategies, including CAR T-cell approaches combined with macrophage-directed gene therapy. She has gained hands-on experience in animal models, as well as molecular and cellular biology techniques.
Giorgio Colleoni
Research Assistant
Giorgio Colleoni earned his Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2024. His research focused on the effects of the FR054 molecule on pancreatic cancer cells, specifically examining DNA repair mechanisms. Since March 2025, Giorgio has been working as a research assistant in the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting group, where he primarily focuses on molecular biology and the chemical optimization of lentiviral vector production.
Giulia Buccarello
Research Fellow
Giulia Buccarello obtained her Master’s degree in Biotechnology and Medical Biology from Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in 2025. Her thesis focused on the immunosuppressive role of the liver in gastrointestinal tumors. She is currently a fellow in the lab, where she is working on a project aimed at designing strategies to improve the use of lentiviral vectors in vivo in distinct applications.
Matilde Bellandi
Master thesis Fellow
Currently enrolled in the Master’s program in Biotechnology and Medical Biology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Matilde Bellandi joined the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting Unit in September 2025, where she is conducting her master’s thesis research. She previously earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnological Research in Medicine from the same university in 2024, with a thesis exploring molecular mimicry as a possible mechanism linking Epstein–Barr virus infection to the development of Multiple Sclerosis.
Daria Saibene
Master thesis Fellow
Daria Saibene obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnological Research in Medicine at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in 2024, with a thesis exploring advanced 3D culture systems and their ability to recapitulate the tumor microenvironment. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Biotechnology and Medical Biology at the same university and joined the Vector Engineering and In Vivo Tumor Targeting Unit to conduct her master’s thesis research.
Past members
Thomas Kerzel, PhD
Post DOC
Thomas Kerzel obtained his Master’s degree in biochemistry at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. During his studies he focused on the development of targeted lentiviral vectors and AAVs for in vivo gene therapy with the purpose of generating CAR T cells in vivo. Hereby, cell specificity is achieved by fusing single chain antibodies or DARPins to the vector surface. In his PhD thesis at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Thomas was involved in the development of an LV-based in vivo cancer gene therapy aiming at breaking immune evasion mechanisms of liver metastases. After completing his Ph.D (Kerzel, Giacca et al., Cancer Cell 2023), Thomas moved to Germany to pursue his scientific career.
Marco Notaro, Ph.D
POST DOC
Marco Notaro graduated with an MSc in Industrial Biotechnology in 2019 from the University of Milano-Bicocca. For his Master’s thesis, he worked on characterizing the function of Rap1 in the DNA damage response in yeast. After graduation, Marco worked in the industrial sector for about a year, developing tailor-made rabbit monoclonal antibodies. He completed his PhD in Gene and Cell Therapy at San Raffaele University, focusing on the development of advanced lentiviral vector-based tumor vaccination. After completing his Ph.D. (Notaro et al., Nature Communications 2025), Marco moved to Switzerland to further pursue his scientific career.
Carl Mirko Mercado, M.Sc.
research assistant
Carl Mirko Mercado obtained his Master Degree in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Milano-Bicocca. During his Master Thesis intership he investigated the role of SETBP1 in the onset of hematological malignancies through the characterization of a transgenic mouse model that leads to SETBP1 overexpression in all hematopoietic cells.
In July 2022, Mirko started a collaboration with San Raffaele Hospital as research assistant in the Cancer Gene Therapy Unit. He is now part of the GLP facility at SR-Tiget
Maristella Borghetti
RESEARCH FELLOW
Maristella Borghetti earned her Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan. During her Bachelor’s degree, she worked on the characterization of microRNAs as potential blood-based biomarkers for predicting Tocilizumab response therapy in COVID-19 patients. After graduation, she was involved in analyzing the microRNA profile of melanoma in the Non-Coding RNA & Cancer Biomarker Laboratory at the University of Bologna. Maristella joined the Cancer Gene Therapy Unit in 2022 for her Master’s thesis internship. For her thesis, she developed a new lentiviral vector-based platform for liver-directed vaccination. Maristella is now Ph.D student at Humanitas.
Federica Trippitelli, M.Sc.
Research fellow
Federica Trippitelli obtained her Master Degree in Biotechnology and Medical Biology (2022) at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. For her Master Thesis internship, she worked on the development of a combined therapeutic approach to improve the functionality of TCR-edited T cells in epithelial ovarian cancer. After graduation, she continued working in the lab to establish an organoid-based tumor model from ovarian cancer biopsies to better assess T-cell mediated antitumor immunity.
At the end of 2022, Federica joined the Cancer Gene Therapy Unit as a research fellow to improve her knowledge in cancer immunology field.
Alessandro Vallorini
MD student
Alessandro Vallorini is currently enrolled in the Medicine and Surgery Program of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan. Previously, Alessandro participated in an internship, which focused on investigating the role of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) in malignant mesothelioma (2019, Chromatin Dynamics Unit).
From 2022, Alessandro has participated in several activities in the Cancer Gene Therapy Unit and, starting from May 2023, he joined the Unit for his Thesis internship. He was then enrolled in a PhD program at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.
Eloise Scamardella, Ph.D.
Research assistant
Eloise Scamardella graduated in Molecular Biology at the University of Naples Federico II where she studied the antitumor effect of oncolytic viruses. In 2020 she obtained a PhD degree in Immunology at Open University/Humanitas. During her studies she focused on molecular mechanisms regulating memory CD8 T cell differentiation and she developed a new strategy to improve CAR-T cell immunotherapy. She worked as a lab technician in our group. Eloise is currently employed as lab manager in the Group of Enrico Lugli at the Humanitas Research Center, Milan.
Gabriele Metalli
master Student
Gabriele Metalli graduated in Biotechnology (BSc) at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna in 2018 with an experimental thesis aimed at developing vectors for the study of a novel candidate gene in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. During the years he attended a summer program at the University of Kent, where he studied different protocols for the production of single-chain antibodies for Acute Myeloid Leukemia target therapy, and a five month fellowship at the Molecular Pathology unit of the Sant’Orsola hospital of Bologna. Gabriele is currently attending the master course in Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Trento, specializing in Cancer Biology. In the our Cancer Gene Therapy Unit, Gabriele performed an internship for his Master Thesis in our lab. He is now PhD student at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.
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