Current Scholars – Paolo Vignali
Paolo Vignali
Paolo Vignali represented the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the College Scholars Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the Pediatric Oncology Education (POE) Program this summer. The POE program provides an invaluable translational, summer research experience for students preparing for careers in biomedical science, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, and public health. The primary goal of the program is to encourage students to pursue careers in cancer research. Paolo returned from the POE program motivated to take a wholehearted, new direction not only in his thesis, but also in his future career. At St. Jude, Paolo worked under Dr. Doug Green in the Department of Immunology, studying the effects of nutrient deprivation in cancer by mimicking the intratumoral hypoxic microenvironment. Cancer cells present with an altered metabolism of nutrients, most notably with an “addiction” to glucose
and glutamine. Cancer metabolism is becoming a topic of increased interest within cancer research because many studies have linked a tumor’s viability and metastatic potential to its extracellular microenvironment.
Paolo’s participation in the POE program has inspired him to write an academic review of cancer and chemotherapy. His thesis will investigate the history of chemotherapy, the mechanisms cellular transformation, and the current evolution of chemotherapeutic interventions to treat the “undruggable” cancers and to reduce the deleterious effects of current interventions. Most significantly, Paolo’s experience at St. Jude has motivated him to pursue an MD/PhD in oncology and immunology. Paolo looks forward to returning to St. Jude to participate in the POE Program in the summer of 2013.