Staff

Francesca Colombo

Primo Ricercatore
E-Mail

francesca.colombo@cnr.it

PHONE

+390250330315

LOCATION

Segrate

ROOM (floor/number)

7/24

I am a senior researcher with approximately 20 years of experience in lung cancer research and genetic epidemiology, as well as more recent experience in pharmacogenomics. My work focuses on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and integrative analyses, such as expression quantitative trait loci, to identify germline variants that influence cancer susceptibility, prognosis, and treatment response, particularly in lung cancer and opioid pharmacogenomics. I have contributed to international consortia investigating the genetic determinants of COVID-19 severity, vaccine response, and long COVID. Through multidisciplinary collaborations with clinicians (including medical oncologists, pneumologists and palliative care experts), computational biologists and bioinformaticians, my research aims to translate genetic insights into predictive biomarkers and personalized therapeutic strategies, advancing precision medicine in oncology and beyond.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for the identification of germline variants associated with diseases, other binary phenotypes and quantitative traits.

Transcriptomic analysis of cancer cells, stem cells, organoids, human and murine tissues in disease models

Identification of genetic and regulatory variants influencing drug response and adverse events

Application of advanced statistical methods, machine learning, deep learning, explainable AI (XAI), and data mining for predicting pathological mechanisms, identifying disease biomarkers and supporting patient stratification.

Development, application and optimization of automated pipelines for the analysis of genomics, epigenomics and transcriptomics data for large-scale studies.

Management and harmonization of biomedical data through organization, curation, and integration of heterogeneous health and research datasets into standardized formats.