Filomena Rea

Filomena holds a degree in Applied Biology in Biomedicine from the University of Pisa and is currently doing her PhD in Biology in the field of Oncohaematology under the supervision of Dr Andrea Ghelli.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a blood cancer characterised by the uncontrolled proliferation of lymphoblasts (immature forms of lymphocytes) in the bone marrow. Conventional treatments achieve complete remissions in 80-90% of adult patients, but despite initial successes, many patients relapse or develop resistance to conventional therapies.

In this context, the bone marrow plays a fundamental role by reorganising its microenvironment to favour the growth of leukaemic cells, thus contributing to the emergence of resistance mechanisms to therapies.

Filomena is involved in the creation of 3D models of bone marrow in vitro to simulate the patient’s tumour microenvironment in order to study the biological mechanisms underlying relapse and drug resistance.