Dr Tania Maffucci

Profile

Dr Maffucci was born in Calitri, a beautiful little town in Campania, Italy. She graduated in Chemistry at the University of Naples (summa cum laude) and then worked for three years at the Consorzio Mario Negri Sud in Abruzzo, Italy, where she also attended a two-year postgraduate course on Biotechnologies. Her education includes a Dottorato di Ricerca in Oncology at the University of Chieti, Italy.

In 2001, Dr Maffucci joined Dr Marco Falasca's laboratory at University College London working on cell signalling, specifically involving the family of enzymes phosphoinositide 3-kinases. She worked as a research fellow under Dr Falasca’s supervision for four years, the last three of which were supported by a Diabetes UK Project Grant to Dr Falasca (April 2002–March 2005). She was then awarded with a Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellowship (personal fellowship, started on April 2005). In 2007, she was appointed as a Lecturer in Cell Signalling at the Blizard Institute, and she was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Cell Signalling in October 2011.

Centre: Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research

Summary

 

Teaching

Undergraduate

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

• MBBS - Year 1 and 2: Lecturer, Problem Based Learning Facilitator
• Medicine GEP - Year 1: Lecturer
• SSC2a and SSC4: Tutor/supervisor

School of Biological and Chemical Sciences

• BMD116: Lecturer
• First-year Laboratory practical: Academic Coordinator

Projects Supervisor

• Intercalated BSc in Experimental Pathology: Laboratory projects
• BMD600/BIO600: Laboratory projects
• BIO603: Project skills in the Life Sciences

Postgraduate

Supervisor

• MSc Regenerative Medicine: Laboratory projects
• PhD programmes

Topics for PhD supervision

• Characterisation of the roles of selective phosphoinositide 3-kinases in cell mitosis and cell migration
• Identification of novel potential therapeutic targets in different cancer cell types

Research

Research Interests:

Dr Tania Maffucci’s research involves investigation of signalling pathways, i.e. the complex signal networks that control cellular functions and whose deregulation is responsible for alteration of cellular processes, ultimately leading to disease.

Interest is focussed on the:

1. identification of the specific intracellular roles of poorly characterised proteins, with the aim of identifying novel regulators of physiological processes
2. characterisation of the molecular mechanisms responsible for deregulation of signalling pathways in human diseases, with the aim of identifying novel potential therapeutic targets.

Current projects are investigating:

1. the role of members of the family of enzymes phosphoinositide 3-kinases in distinct cellular processes, including cell mitosis/division and migration/invasion
2. identification of novel potential targets in different cancer cell types, including cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and prostate cancer cells.

Publications

Key Publications

Cisse O, Quraishi M, Gulluni F, Guffanti F, Mavrommati I, Suthanthirakumaran M, Oh LCR, Schlatter JN, Sarvananthan A, Broggini M, Hirsch E, Falasca M, Maffucci T. Downregulation of class II phosphoinositide 3-kinase PI3K-C2β delays cell division and potentiates the effect of docetaxel on cancer cell growth. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Nov 21;38(1):472.

Emmanouilidi A, Fyffe CA, Ferro R, Edling CE, Capone E, Sestito S, Rapposelli S, Lattanzio R, Iacobelli S, Sala G, Maffucci T, Falasca M. Preclinical validation of 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 inhibition in pancreatic cancer. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2019 May 14;38(1):191.

Janus JM, O'Shaughnessy RFL, Harwood CA, Maffucci T. Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase-Dependent Signalling Pathways in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinomas. Cancers (Basel). 2017 Jul 11;9(7):86.

Mavrommati I, Cisse O, Falasca M, Maffucci T. Novel roles for class II Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase C2β in signalling pathways involved in prostate cancer cell invasion. Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 17;6:23277.

All Publications