Alessandro Lagana, PhD Email Alessandro Lagana
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- Position
- ASSISTANT PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences
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- Language
- English
Alessandro is an Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His main research interests are in the fields of integrative cancer genomics, cancer network biology and precision oncology.
The aim of Alessandro's research is the development and application of computational methods for integrative analysis of multi-omics data to:
- Investigate the role of coding and non-coding alterations on cancer pathogenesis and progression;
- Understand the clinical implications of intra-tumor heterogeneity and of the tumor microenvironment;
- Inform patient risk stratification;
- Develop personalized therapy selection approaches guided by next-generation sequencing technologies.
Alessandro's current research focuses on Multiple Myeloma, a genetically complex and heterogeneous malignancy of bone marrow plasma cells affecting more than 30,000 patients each year in the United States. The causal drivers of Myeloma pathogenesis are still unclear, and treatment is administered empirically on the basis of recurrence risk rather than genetic events.
Alessandro is leading the development of a precision medicine pipeline that has been successfully applied in a clinical trial to guide treatment of relapsed Multiple Myeloma patients. The goal of precision oncology is to devise optimal treatment strategies tailored to the characteristics of the individual patient’s disease. However, the widespread heterogeneity of cancer patients and drug responses pose a significant challenge in the design of effective personalized treatments. Alessandro's research addresses this extremely important challenge and aims to transform the current paradigm of empirical clinical application. The systematic use of integrative genomics, systems biology approaches, big-data analytics and novel sequencing technologies will enable physicians to provide more precise and effective personalized treatment of cancer.
Education
M.Sc. University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Ph.D. University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Language
English
Laganà A, Beno I, Melnekoff D, Leshchenko V, Madduri D, Ramdas D, Sanchez L, Niglio S, Perumal D, Kidd BA, Miotto R, Shaknovich R, Chari A, Cho H, Barlogie B, Jagannath S, Dudley JT, Parekh S. Precision Medicine for Relapsed Multiple Myeloma on the Basis of an Integrative Multiomics Approach. JCO Precision Oncology 2018 Aug; 33(27).
Chari A, Cho H, Dhadwal A, Morgan G, La L, Zarychta K, Catamero D, Florendo E, Stevens N, Verina D, Chan E, Leshchenko V, Laganà A, Perumal D, Mei A, Tung K, Fukui J, Jagannath S, Parekh S. A phase 2 study of panobinostat with lenalidomide and weekly dexamethasone in myeloma. Blood Advances 2017 Aug; 1(19).
Shi L, Middleton J, Jeon YJ, Magee P, Veneziano D, Laganà A, Leong HS, Sahoo S, Fassan M, Booton R, Shah R, Crosbie PA, Garofalo M. KRAS induces lung tumorigenesis through microRNAs modulation. Cell death & disease 2018 Feb; 9(2).
Laganà A, Perumal D, Melnekoff D, Readhead B, Kidd BA, Leshchenko V, Kuo PY, Keats J, DeRome M, Yesil J, Auclair D, Lonial S, Chari A, Cho HJ, Barlogie B, Jagannath S, Dudley JT, Parekh S. Integrative network analysis identifies novel drivers of pathogenesis and progression in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Leukemia 2018 Jan; 32(1).
Naidu S, Shi L, Magee P, Middleton JD, Laganá A, Sahoo S, Leong HS, Galvin M, Frese K, Dive C, Guzzardo V, Fassan M, Garofalo M. PDGFR-modulated miR-23b cluster and miR-125a-5p suppress lung tumorigenesis by targeting multiple components of KRAS and NF-kB pathways. Scientific reports 2017 Nov; 7(1).
Russo F, Di Bella S, Vannini F, Berti G, Scoyni F, Cook HV, Santos A, Nigita G, Bonnici V, Laganà A, Geraci F, Pulvirenti A, Giugno R, De Masi F, Belling K, Jensen LJ, Brunak S, Pellegrini M, Ferro A. miRandola 2017: a curated knowledge base of non-invasive biomarkers. Nucleic acids research 2018 Jan; 46(D1).
Laganà A, Dirksen WP, Supsavhad W, Yilmaz AS, Ozer HG, Feller JD, Vala KA, Croce CM, Rosol TJ. Discovery and characterization of the feline miRNAome. Scientific reports 2017 Aug; 7(1).
Acunzo M, Romano G, Nigita G, Veneziano D, Fattore L, Laganà A, Zanesi N, Fadda P, Fassan M, Rizzotto L, Kladney R, Coppola V, Croce CM. Selective targeting of point-mutated KRAS through artificial microRNAs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2017 05; 114(21).
Veneziano D, Di Bella S, Nigita G, Laganà A, Ferro A, Croce CM. Noncoding RNA: Current Deep Sequencing Data Analysis Approaches and Challenges. Human mutation 2016 12; 37(12).
Fattore L, Mancini R, Acunzo M, Romano G, Laganà A, Pisanu ME, Malpicci D, Madonna G, Mallardo D, Capone M, Fulciniti F, Mazzucchelli L, Botti G, Croce CM, Ascierto PA, Ciliberto G. miR-579-3p controls melanoma progression and resistance to target therapy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016 08; 113(34).
Nigita G, Acunzo M, Romano G, Veneziano D, Laganà A, Vitiello M, Wernicke D, Ferro A, Croce CM. microRNA editing in seed region aligns with cellular changes in hypoxic conditions. Nucleic acids research 2016 07; 44(13).
Laganà A. Computational Prediction of microRNA Targets. Advances in experimental medicine and biology 2015; 887.
Laganà A, Veneziano D, Spata T, Tang R, Zhu H, Mohler PJ, Kilic A. Identification of General and Heart-Specific miRNAs in Sheep (Ovis aries). PloS one 2015; 10(11).
Laganà A, Ferro A, Croce CM. Editorial: Bioinformatics of Non-Coding RNAs with Applications to Biomedicine: Recent Advances and Open Challenges. Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology 2015; 3.
Tili E, Chiabai M, Palmieri D, Brown M, Cui R, Fernandes C, Richmond T, Kim T, Sheetz T, Sun HL, Lagana A, Veneziano D, Volinia S, Rassenti L, Kipps T, Awad H, Michaille JJ, Croce CM. Quaking and miR-155 interactions in inflammation and leukemogenesis. Oncotarget 2015 Sep; 6(28).
Joshi P, Jeon YJ, Laganà A, Middleton J, Secchiero P, Garofalo M, Croce CM. MicroRNA-148a reduces tumorigenesis and increases TRAIL-induced apoptosis in NSCLC. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015 Jul; 112(28).
Jeon YJ, Middleton J, Kim T, Laganà A, Piovan C, Secchiero P, Nuovo GJ, Cui R, Joshi P, Romano G, Di Leva G, Lee BK, Sun HL, Kim Y, Fadda P, Alder H, Garofalo M, Croce CM. A set of NF-κB-regulated microRNAs induces acquired TRAIL resistance in lung cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015 Jun; 112(26).
Drusco A, Bottoni A, Laganà A, Acunzo M, Fassan M, Cascione L, Antenucci A, Kumchala P, Vicentini C, Gardiman MP, Alder H, Carosi MA, Ammirati M, Gherardi S, Luscrì M, Carapella C, Zanesi N, Croce CM. A differentially expressed set of microRNAs in cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) can diagnose CNS malignancies. Oncotarget 2015 Aug; 6(25).
Laganà A, Veneziano D, Russo F, Pulvirenti A, Giugno R, Croce CM, Ferro A. Computational design of artificial RNA molecules for gene regulation. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 2015; 1269.
Tibaldi C, D'Incecco A, Lagana A. MicroRNAs and Targeted Therapies in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Minireview. Anti-cancer agents in medicinal chemistry 2015; 15(6).
Laganà A, Shasha D, Croce CM. Synthetic RNAs for Gene Regulation: Design Principles and Computational Tools. Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology 2014; 2.
Efanov A, Zanesi N, Coppola V, Nuovo G, Bolon B, Wernicle-Jameson D, Lagana A, Hansjuerg A, Pichiorri F, Croce CM. Human HMGA2 protein overexpressed in mice induces precursor T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood cancer journal 2014 Jul; 4.
Russo F, Di Bella S, Bonnici V, Laganà A, Rainaldi G, Pellegrini M, Pulvirenti A, Giugno R, Ferro A. A knowledge base for the discovery of function, diagnostic potential and drug effects on cellular and extracellular miRNAs. BMC genomics 2014; 15 Suppl 3.
Laganà A, Acunzo M, Romano G, Pulvirenti A, Veneziano D, Cascione L, Giugno R, Gasparini P, Shasha D, Ferro A, Croce CM. miR-Synth: a computational resource for the design of multi-site multi-target synthetic miRNAs. Nucleic acids research 2014 May; 42(9).
Nasarre P, Gemmill RM, Potiron VA, Roche J, Lu X, Barón AE, Korch C, Garrett-Mayer E, Lagana A, Howe PH, Drabkin HA. Neuropilin-2 Is upregulated in lung cancer cells during TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Cancer research 2013 Dec; 73(23).
Laganà A, Russo F, Veneziano D, Bella SD, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Croce CM, Ferro A. Extracellular circulating viral microRNAs: current knowledge and perspectives. Frontiers in genetics 2013; 4.
Acunzo M, Romano G, Palmieri D, Laganá A, Garofalo M, Balatti V, Drusco A, Chiariello M, Nana-Sinkam P, Croce CM. Cross-talk between MET and EGFR in non-small cell lung cancer involves miR-27a and Sprouty2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2013 May; 110(21).
Pichiorri F, Palmieri D, De Luca L, Consiglio J, You J, Rocci A, Talabere T, Piovan C, Lagana A, Cascione L, Guan J, Gasparini P, Balatti V, Nuovo G, Coppola V, Hofmeister CC, Marcucci G, Byrd JC, Volinia S, Shapiro CL, Freitas MA, Croce CM. In vivo NCL targeting affects breast cancer aggressiveness through miRNA regulation. The Journal of experimental medicine 2013 May; 210(5).
Zanesi N, Balatti V, Riordan J, Burch A, Rizzotto L, Palamarchuk A, Cascione L, Lagana A, Dupuy AJ, Croce CM, Pekarsky Y. A Sleeping Beauty screen reveals NF-kB activation in CLL mouse model. Blood 2013 May; 121(21).
Manfè V, Biskup E, Willumsgaard A, Skov AG, Palmieri D, Gasparini P, Laganá A, Woetmann A, Ødum N, Croce CM, Gniadecki R. cMyc/miR-125b-5p signalling determines sensitivity to bortezomib in preclinical model of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. PloS one 2013; 8(3).
Distefano R, Nigita G, Macca V, Laganà A, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A. VIRGO: visualization of A-to-I RNA editing sites in genomic sequences. BMC bioinformatics 2013; 14 Suppl 7.
Cascione L, Ferro A, Giugno R, Laganà A, Pigola G, Pulvirenti A, Veneziano D. Elucidating the role of microRNAs in cancer through data mining techniques. Advances in experimental medicine and biology 2013; 774.
Russo F, Di Bella S, Nigita G, Macca V, Laganà A, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A. miRandola: extracellular circulating microRNAs database. PloS one 2012; 7(10).
Laganà A, Paone A, Veneziano D, Cascione L, Gasparini P, Carasi S, Russo F, Nigita G, Macca V, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Shasha D, Ferro A, Croce CM. miR-EdiTar: a database of predicted A-to-I edited miRNA target sites. Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) 2012 Dec; 28(23).
Ranganathan P, Heaphy CE, Costinean S, Stauffer N, Na C, Hamadani M, Santhanam R, Mao C, Taylor PA, Sandhu S, He G, Shana'ah A, Nuovo GJ, Lagana A, Cascione L, Obad S, Broom O, Kauppinen S, Byrd JC, Caligiuri M, Perrotti D, Hadley GA, Marcucci G, Devine SM, Blazar BR, Croce CM, Garzon R. Regulation of acute graft-versus-host disease by microRNA-155. Blood 2012 May; 119(20).
Laganà A, Russo F, Sismeiro C, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A. Variability in the incidence of miRNAs and genes in fragile sites and the role of repeats and CpG islands in the distribution of genetic material. PloS one 2010 Jun; 5(6).
Laganà A, Forte S, Russo F, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A. Prediction of human targets for viral-encoded microRNAs by thermodynamics and empirical constraints. Journal of RNAi and gene silencing : an international journal of RNA and gene targeting research 2010 May; 6(1).
Laganà A, Forte S, Giudice A, Arena MR, Puglisi PL, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Shasha D, Ferro A. miRò: a miRNA knowledge base. Database : the journal of biological databases and curation 2009; 2009.
Svicher V, Alteri C, D'Arrigo R, Laganà A, Trignetti M, Lo Caputo S, Callegaro AP, Maggiolo F, Mazzotta F, Ferro A, Dimonte S, Aquaro S, di Perri G, Bonora S, Tommasi C, Trotta MP, Narciso P, Antinori A, Perno CF, Ceccherini-Silberstein F. Treatment with the fusion inhibitor enfuvirtide influences the appearance of mutations in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 regulatory protein rev. Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 2009 Jul; 53(7).
Di Pietro C, Ragusa M, Barbagallo D, Duro LR, Guglielmino MR, Majorana A, Giunta V, Rapisarda A, Tricarichi E, Miceli M, Angelica R, Grillo A, Banelli B, Defferari I, Forte S, Laganà A, Bosco C, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Ferro A, Grzeschik KH, Di Cataldo A, Tonini GP, Romani M, Purrello M. Involvement of GTA protein NC2beta in neuroblastoma pathogenesis suggests that it physiologically participates in the regulation of cell proliferation. Molecular cancer 2008 Jun; 7.
Di Pietro C, Ragusa M, Duro L, Guglielmino MR, Barbagallo D, Carnemolla A, Laganà A, Buffa P, Angelica R, Rinaldi A, Calafato MS, Milicia I, Caserta C, Giugno R, Pulvirenti A, Giunta V, Rapisarda A, Di Pietro V, Grillo A, Messina A, Ferro A, Grzeschik KH, Purrello M. Genomics, evolution, and expression of TBPL2, a member of the TBP family. DNA and cell biology 2007 Jun; 26(6).
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Dr.Lagana did not report having any of the following types of financial relationships with industry during 2017 and/or 2018: consulting, scientific advisory board, industry-sponsored lectures, service on Board of Directors, participation on industry-sponsored committees, equity ownership valued at greater than 5% of a publicly traded company or any value in a privately held company. Please note that this information may differ from information posted on corporate sites due to timing or classification differences.
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