Ilaria Malanchi

Ilaria Malanchi demonstrated that cancer cells reprogram lung fibroblasts into metastasis-promoting CAFs at the pre-metastatic niche through TGF-beta and periostin signaling, creating a supportive stroma for colonizing tumor cells before their arrival, and that blocking this pre-metastatic CAF activation prevents metastatic outgrowth. Her work on the metastatic niche showed that CAF-derived periostin activates Wnt signaling in arriving cancer stem cells, maintaining their self-renewal capacity during the critical colonization phase. She investigates targeting the earliest stages of CAF reprogramming at distant sites as a metastasis prevention strategy.