Claudia Gentile
PhD
Dr. Gentile received her undergraduate degree in Biology, Specialization Cell and Molecular Biology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She then pursued her graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Marie Kmita at the IRCM in Montreal and obtained her PhD from McGill University in 2019. Her graduate work focused on investigating the role of Polycomb group proteins in chromatin conformation and HoxA gene regulation during mouse embryonic limb development.
Next, she completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Cigall Kadoch at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her postdoctoral work was centered on understanding the functional role of mSWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complexes in oncogene-driven cancers.
At the University of Toronto, Dr. Gentile leads a research program focused on how oncogenic cell signaling pathways modulate the activity and function of chromatin regulators to establish transcriptional programs that drive oncogenesis and therapeutic resistance. By combining cancer biology, genomics and biochemistry approaches, she aims to define new strategies for targeting epigenetic dependencies in cancer.
Research synopsis
How oncogenic signaling rewires the epigenome to drive cancer - and how to target it.
Cancer-causing mutations in signaling pathways alter gene expression programs by acting on chromatin regulatory systems. In the Gentile Lab, we investigate how oncogenic signaling pathways communicate with the epigenome - focusing on the Polycomb Repressive Complexes - to control transcriptional states that govern cancer development and therapeutic response.
Our work sits at the interface of signal transduction, chromatin biology, and cancer therapeutics. We combine genomics, proteomics, and functional genetics to uncover how aberrant cell signaling rewires chromatin landscapes, and how these mechanisms can be exploited to overcome resistance to targeted therapies.
Core questions
- How do oncogenic signaling pathways modulate the activity and function of Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) and Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)?
- How do PRC1/2 mediate targeted therapy resistance, and can we selectively target their activities to prevent or attenuate resistance?
- How does targeting epigenetic regulators affect 3D chromatin architecture and the balance between gene activation and gene repression?
Honours and awards
Next Generation of Scientists Award, Cancer Research Society (2023)
Helen Gurley Brown Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2020)
Jacques-Gauthier Doctoral Scholarship, IRCM (2015)