Simone Anfossi, Ph.D.
Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology-Lab Medicine Div
About Dr. Simone Anfossi
Dr. Anfossi’s research focuses on tumor immunology and tumor microenvironment (TME). He is particularly interested in investigating the role of molecular cargo (non-coding RNAs: ncRNAs) of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in regulating the effect of the crosstalk among cancer cells and tumor-associated cells (T cells, NK cells, dendritic cells, macrophages) on their cell biology functions.
Dr. Anfossi's journey in tumor immunology began after his BS/MS degree in molecular biology at the University of Genoa, Italy. He started as a fellow in the Immunopathology Laboratory of Dr. Lorenzo Moretta at the National Institute for Cancer Research, Genoa, Italy, where he focused on the anti-tumor functions of T lymphocytes. His interest in tumor immunology deepened during his time as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Cancer Immunotherapy Research Lab of Dr. Alessandro D. Santin at The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA, where he worked on the development of dendritic cell-based immunotherapy for ovarian cancer.
At The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Anfossi's research took a new direction. He delved into the molecular biology of ncRNAs (microRNAs: miRNAs, long non-coding RNAs: lncRNAs) and EVs in the TME. This focus on the role of miRNAs, lncRNAs, and EVs has been a consistent thread throughout his graduate student, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Instructor time. After starting a research collaboration with Dr. Moran Amit, Dr. Anfossi included the tumor-associated nerves as additional components in regulating the TME and players in the EV-mediated crosstalk.
The main goal of Dr. Anfossi's research is to study the role of EVs in modulating the TME to promote tumor progression, tumor immune escape, and treatment resistance development. Studying the functional role of extracellular ncRNAs carried by secreted EVs will help gain further insights into understanding the molecular mechanisms in the TME regulating cancer initiation and progression and identifying new potential targets for novel cancer therapy. Dr. Anfossi is also involved in the development of engineered EVs to target cancer cells with aggressive phenotypes, such as cancer stem-like (CSC) with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) characteristics, in the TME of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Dr. Simone Anfossi is a molecular biologist interested in tumor immunology, tumor microenvironment, and extracellular vesicle biology. His research aims to understand the role of extracellular vesicles in mediating intercellular communication in the tumor microenvironment, with particular focus on the crosstalk between cancer cells and tumor-associated cells (immune cells and tumor-infiltrating nerves) and the effect on tumor progression, tumor immune escape, and treatment resistance development. The long-term goal of Dr. Anfossi’s research is the development of novel therapeutic strategies to target TME cells using engineered extracellular vesicles.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2013 | The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA, PHD, Biomedical Sciences |
| 1998 | University of Genoa, Genoa, ITA, BS, Molecular Biology |
| 1998 | University of Genoa, Genoa, ITA, MS, Molecular Biology |
Honors & Awards
| 2019 | The Thomas H. and Mayme P. Scott Fellowship in Cancer Research, The Thomas H. and Mayme P. Scott Foundation, Inc |
| 2018 | AAAS/Science Program for Excellence, AAAS Science |
| 2018 | The Diane Denson Tobola Fellowship in Ovarian Cancer Research, The Diane Denson Tobola |
| 2017 | The Thomas H. and Mayme P. Scott Fellowship in Cancer Research, The Thomas H. and Mayme P. Scott Foundation, Inc |
| 2015 | Award in Translational/Clinical Research, Agilent |
| 2014 | Award in Translational Research, The Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc |
| 2012 | AACR Scholar-In-Training Award, Susan G. Komen for the Cure |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Dragomir MP, Fuentes-Mattei E, Winkle M, Okubo K, Bayraktar R, Knutsen E, Qdaisat A, Chen M, Li Y, Shimizu M, Pang L, Liu K, Liu X, Anfossi S, Zhang H, Koch I, Tran AM, Mohapatra S, Ton A, Kaplan M, Anderson MW, Rothfuss SJ, Silasi R, Keshari RS, Ferracin M, Ivan C, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Lopez-Berestein G, Georgescu C, Banerjee PP, Basar R, Li Z, Horst D, Vasilescu C, Bertilaccio MTS, Rezvani K, Lupu F, Yeung SC, Calin GA. Anti-miR-93-5p therapy prolongs sepsis survival by restoring the peripheral immune response. J Clin Invest. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37261908.
- Drula R, Pardini B, Fu X, De Los Santos MC, Jurj A, Pang L, El-Daly SM, Fabris L, Knutsen E, Dragomir MP, Bayraktar R, Li Y, Chen M, Del Vecchio F, Berland L, Dae J, Fan D, Shimizu M, Tran AM, Barzi M, Pioppini C, Gutierrez AM, Ivan C, Meas S, Hall CS, Alahari SK, Berindan-Neagoe I, Fabbri M, Lucci A, Arun B, Anfossi S, Calin GA. 17β-estradiol promotes extracellular vesicle release and selective miRNA loading in ERα-positive breast cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 120(23):e2122053120, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37252969.
- Vicente DA, Schobel SA, Anfossi S, Hensman H, Lisboa F, Robertson H, Khatri V, Bradley MJ, Shimizu M, Buchman TG, Davis TA, Dente CJ, Kirk AD, Calin GA, Elster EA. Cellular microRNAs correlate with clinical parameters in multiple injury patients. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 93(4):427-438, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35797620.
- Vicente D, Schobel SA, Anfossi S, Hensman H, Lisboa F, Robertson H, Khatri V, Bradley MJ, Shimizu M, Buchman TG, Davis TA, Dente CJ, Kirk AD, Calin GA, Elster EA. Viral Micro-RNAs Are Detected in the Early Systemic Response to Injury and Are Associated With Outcomes in Polytrauma Patients. Crit Care Med 50(2):296-306, 2022. PMID: 34259445.
- Pichler M, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Nam SY, Dragomir MP, Bayraktar R, Anfossi S, Knutsen E, Ivan C, Fuentes-Mattei E, Lee SK, Ling H, Catela Ivkovic T, Huang G, Huang L, Okugawa Y, Katayama H, Taguchi A, Bayraktar E, Bhattacharya R, Amero P, He WR, Tran AM, Vychytilova-Faltejskova P, Klec C, Bonilla DL, Zhang X, Kapitanovic S, Loncar B, Gafà R, Wang Z, Cristini V, Hanash SM, Bar-Eli M, Lanza G, Slaby O, Goel A, Rigoutsos I, Lopez-Berestein G, Calin GA. Therapeutic potential of FLANC, a novel primate-specific long non-coding RNA in colorectal cancer. Gut 69(10):1818-1831, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31988194.
- Chen B, Dragomir MP, Fabris L, Bayraktar R, Knutsen E, Liu X, Tang C, Li Y, Shimura T, Ivkovic TC, De Los Santos MC, Anfossi S, Shimizu M, Shah MY, Ling H, Shen P, Multani AS, Pardini B, Burks JK, Katayama H, Reineke LC, Huo L, Syed M, Song S, Ferracin M, Oki E, Fromm B, Ivan C, Bhuvaneshwar K, Gusev Y, Mimori K, Menter D, Sen S, Matsuyama T, Uetake H, Vasilescu C, Kopetz S, Parker-Thornburg J, Taguchi A, Hanash SM, Girnita L, Slaby O, Goel A, Varani G, Gagea M, Li C, Ajani JA, Calin GA. The Long Noncoding RNA CCAT2 induces chromosomal instability through BOP1 - AURKB signaling. Gastroenterology. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32805281.
- Amit M, Takahashi H, Dragomir MP, Lindemann A, Gleber-Netto FO, Pickering CR, Anfossi S, Osman AA, Cai Y, Wang R, Knutsen E, Shimizu M, Ivan C, Rao X, Wang J, Silverman DA, Tam S, Zhao M, Caulin C, Zinger A, Tasciotti E, Dougherty PM, El-Naggar A, Calin GA, Myers JN. Loss of p53 drives neuron reprogramming in head and neck cancer. Nature 578(7795):449-454, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32051587.
- Cortez MA, Anfossi S, Ramapriyan R, Menon H, Atalar SC, Aliru M, Welsh J, Calin GA. Role of miRNAs in immune responses and immunotherapy in cancer. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 58(4):244-253, 2019. PMID: 30578699.
- Anfossi S, Babayan A, Pantel K, Calin GA. Clinical utility of circulating non-coding RNAs - an update. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 15(9):541-563, 2018. PMID: 29784926.
- Rigoutsos I, Lee SK, Nam SY, Anfossi S*, Pasculli B, Pichler M, Jing Y, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Telonis AG, Rossi S, Ivan C, Catela Ivkovic T, Fabris L, Clark PM, Ling H, Shimizu M, Redis RS, Shah MY, Zhang X, Okugawa Y, Jung EJ, Tsirigos A, Huang L, Ferdin J, Gafà R, Spizzo R, Nicoloso MS, Paranjape AN, Shariati M, Tiron A, Yeh JJ, Teruel-Montoya R, Xiao L, Melo SA, Menter D, Jiang ZQ, Flores ER, Negrini M, Goel A, Bar-Eli M, Mani SA, Liu CG, Lopez-Berestein G, Berindan-Neagoe I, Esteller M, Kopetz S, Lanza G, Calin GA. N-BLR, a primate-specific non-coding transcript leads to colorectal cancer invasion and migration. Genome Biol 18(1):98, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28535802. *First co-author.
- Mego M, Gao H, Cohen EN, Anfossi S, Giordano A, Tin S, Fouad TM, De Giorgi U, Giuliano M, Woodward WA, Alvarez RH, Valero V, Ueno NT, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are associated with abnormalities in peripheral blood dendritic cells in patients with inflammatory breast cancer. Oncotarget 8(22):35656-35668, 2017. PMID: 27374101.
- Liu S, Anfossi S*, Qiu B, Zheng Y, Cai M, Fu J, Yang H, Liu Q, Chen Z, Fu J, Liu M, Burks JK, Lin SH, Reuben J, Liu H. Prognostic Factors for Locoregional Recurrence in Patients with Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treated with Radical Two-Field Lymph Node Dissection: Results from Long-Term Follow-Up. Ann Surg Oncol 24(4):966-973, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27804027. *First co-author.
- Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Anfossi S, Diagaradjane P, Chu K, Bambhroliya A, Huo L, Wei C, Larson RA, Wolfe AR, Xu W, Smith DL, Li L, Ivan C, Allen PK, Wu W, Calin GA, Krishnamurthy S, Zhang XH, Buchholz TA, Ueno NT, Reuben JM, Woodward WA. miR-141-Mediated Regulation of Brain Metastasis From Breast Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 108(8), 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27075851.
- Mego M, Gao H, Cohen EN, Anfossi S, Giordano A, Sanda T, Fouad TM, De Giorgi U, Giuliano M, Woodward WA, Alvarez RH, Valero V, Ueno NT, Hortobagyi GN, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) Are Associated with Defects in Adaptive Immunity in Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. J Cancer 7(9):1095-104, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27326253.
- Cohen EN, Gao H, Anfossi S, Mego M, Reddy NG, Debeb B, Giordano A, Tin S, Wu Q, Garza RJ, Cristofanilli M, Mani SA, Croix DA, Ueno NT, Woodward WA, Luthra R, Krishnamurthy S, Reuben JM. Inflammation Mediated Metastasis: Immune Induced Epithelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells. PLoS One 10(7):e0132710, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26207636.
- Giuliano M, Giordano A, Jackson S, De Giorgi U, Mego M, Cohen EN, Gao H, Anfossi S, Handy BC, Ueno NT, Alvarez RH, De Placido S, Valero V, Hortobagyi GN, Reuben JM, Cristofanilli M. Circulating tumor cells as early predictors of metastatic spread in breast cancer patients with limited metastatic dissemination. Breast Cancer Res 16(5):440, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25223629.
- Anfossi S, Giordano A, Gao H, Cohen EN, Tin S, Wu Q, Garza RJ, Debeb BG, Alvarez RH, Valero V, Hortobagyi GN, Calin GA, Ueno NT, Woodward WA, Reuben JM. High serum miR-19a levels are associated with inflammatory breast cancer and are predictive of favorable clinical outcome in patients with metastatic HER2+ inflammatory breast cancer. PLoS One 9(1):e83113, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24416156.
- Giordano A, Gao H, Cohen EN, Anfossi S, Khoury J, Hess K, Krishnamurthy S, Tin S, Cristofanilli M, Hortobagyi GN, Woodward WA, Lucci A, Reuben JM. Clinical relevance of cancer stem cells in bone marrow of early breast cancer patients. Ann Oncol 24(10):2515-21, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23798614.
- Bao Y, Liu S, Zhou Q, Cai P, Anfossi S, Li Q, Hu Y, Liu M, Fu J, Rong T, Li Q, Liu H. Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy for postoperative recurrence of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: clinical efficacy and failure pattern. Radiat Oncol 8:241, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24139225.
- Giordano A, Gao H, Anfossi S, Cohen E, Mego M, Lee BN, Tin S, De Laurentiis M, Parker CA, Alvarez RH, Valero V, Ueno NT, De Placido S, Mani SA, Esteva FJ, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem cell markers in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Mol Cancer Ther 11(11):2526-34, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22973057.
- Bellone S, Anfossi S, O'Brien TJ, Cannon MJ, Silasi DA, Azodi M, Schwartz PE, Rutherford TJ, Pecorelli S, Santin AD. Induction of human tumor-associated differentially expressed gene-12 (TADG-12/TMPRSS3)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in human lymphocyte antigen-A2.1-positive healthy donors and patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Cancer 115(4):800-11, 2009. PMID: 19117353.
- Bellone S, Anfossi S, O'Brien TJ, Cannon MJ, Silasi DA, Azodi M, Schwartz PE, Rutherford TJ, Pecorelli S, Santin AD. Generation of CA125-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in human leukocyte antigen-A2.1-positive healthy donors and patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Am J Obstet Gynecol 200(1):75.e1-10, 2009. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18976739.
- Pietra G, Romagnani C, Falco M, Vitale M, Castriconi R, Pende D, Millo E, Anfossi S, Biassoni R, Moretta L, Mingari MC. The analysis of the natural killer-like activity of human cytolytic T lymphocytes revealed HLA-E as a novel target for TCR alpha/beta-mediated recognition. Eur J Immunol 31(12):3687-93, 2001. PMID: 11745389.
Invited Articles
- Anfossi S, Calin GA. Gut microbiota: a new player in regulating immune- and chemo-therapy efficacy. Cancer Drug Resist 3(3):356-370, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33062956.
Book Chapters
- Anfossi S, Fu X, Nagvekar R, Calin GA. MicroRNAs, Regulatory Messengers Inside and Outside Cancer Cells. In: Adv Exp Med Biol, 87-108, 2018.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified April 18, 2024