Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Two scholarships to support the fight against cancer

Elisa Facen and Matteo Gianesello have been awarded the two PhD scholarships offered by UniTrento and Fondazione Pezcoller

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Elisa Facen and Matteo Gianesello are the recipients of the two PhD scholarships offered by Fondazione Pezcoller within the Biomolecular sciences program of the Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology of the University of Trento to study the causes, mechanisms and treatments of tumors.

The two PhD students were selected from among the 117 applicants wishing to enter the PhD program.

Now they will both work on cancer research in two of the six research projects coordinated by lead researchers at the Cibio Department.

Elisa Facen will work at the Laboratory of Genomic Screening led by Alessandro Provenzani on the malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST).

Matteo Gianesello will join a project on medulloblastoma, the most common brain tumor of childhood, at the Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Brain Disorders and Cancer led by Luca Tiberi.

The doctoral students were welcomed today by Rector Paolo Collini at Palazzo Sardagna to formally receive the awards by the president of Fondazione Pezcoller Enzo Galligioni and the president of Fondo comune delle Casse rurali trentine Silvio Mucchi.

Funding for the two PhD scholarships for the academic year 2020/2021 was provided thanks to the agreement the University and Fondazione Pezcoller signed in July and the generous donation (75,000 euro) by the Fondo comune delle Casse rurali trentine. The scholarships are named Fondazione Pezcoller – Casse Rurali Trentine and Fondazione Pezcoller – Marina Larcher Fogazzaro, after the donors who have generously gifted funds to support cancer research in Trentino.

The purpose of Fondazione Pezcoller is to support cancer research through the international prize that is awarded to an internationally renowned researcher in collaboration with the American Association for Cancer Research; the young European researcher award, in collaboration with the European Association for Cancer Research; the annual Pezcoller Symposium; and the scholarship offered in collaboration with the Società italiana cancerologia. The purpose of the agreement with the University of Trento and with Fondo comune delle Casse rurali trentine (which represents Casse rurali trentine, the local banks that have always been close to the territory and their communities) is to contribute to scientific research so that it can have a greater economic and social impact in Trentino.