Pier Giorgio Petronini
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Education and Specializations
• Degree in Biological Sciences
• Specialist in General Pathology
• Specialist in Clinical Biochemistry
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Current Position
• Full Professor of General Pathology, Università degli Studi di Parma
• Head, Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, Department of Medicine and Surgery
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Academic and Scientific Profile
Professor Petronini is Full Professor of General Pathology and Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology at the University of Parma.
He conducted research training at the Viral Oncology Unit directed by Prof. Luc Montagnier at the Istituto Pasteur, Paris.
He serves as Academic Editor of PLOS ONE and reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals, including:
• Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
• Cytotherapy
• Cancer Cell International
• Molecular Carcinogenesis
• Cancer Research
He is also:
• Scientific Director of the Chiara Tassoni Association for Leukemia and Cancer Research (Parma)
• Scientific Director of the Augusto per la Vita Association (Novellara)
Member of national and international scientific societies, including:
• Italian Association of Cell Biology and Differentiation
• Italian Society of Cancerology
• Italian Society of Pathology
• American Society for Investigative Pathology
• European Association for Cancer Research
From 2018 to 2025, he served as President of the Scientific Committee 06 (Medical Sciences) and member of the University Research Committee. He is currently Delegate of the Director of the Department of Medicine and Surgery for Private Research Funding.
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Research Interests
His research activity focuses on Translational Molecular Oncology, particularly:
• Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
• Breast Cancer
• Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
• Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Ewing Sarcoma
Research is centered on the development of novel therapeutic strategies in preclinical models (in vitro and xenograft nude mouse models), with particular attention to:
• Mechanisms of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)
• Molecular targets (EGFR, ErbB, PI3K, CDK4/6)
• Immunotherapy (PD-L1 and predictive biomarkers)
• Integrated therapeutic sequencing (TKIs–immunotherapy)
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Major Funded Research Projects
He has coordinated or co-coordinated several publicly and privately funded research projects, including:
• Competitive Research Projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Health
• Projects funded by AIRC (P.I. Andrea Ardizzoni; P.I. Marcello Tiseo)
• Industry-funded projects by Novartis, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Chiesi Farmaceutici
• EFSA project on comparative toxicology (3-MCPD)
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Scientific Output
• 155 peer-reviewed international publications
• Total citations: 4,904
• H-index: 41 (Scopus)
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Patents
• Irreversible EGFR inhibitory compounds with antiproliferative activity (PCT/IB2009/055980)
• Novel MDR1 inhibitors to overcome multidrug resistance (PCT/EP2015/067795)
