Mario Chiariello

After his medical degree at the University of Napoli in 1993, Mario Chiariello received his Ph.D. in “Cellular and Molecular Biology and Pathology” from the same University in 2000. In 1997 he moved to the USA at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (MD) for his post doctoral experience and in 2001 he obtained his first permanent position and started his own laboratory at the Institute for Experimental Endocrinology and Oncology, CNR, Napoli. In 2007 he moved to Siena where he was appointed as Principal Investigator of the Core Research Laboratory of the Istituto Toscano Tumori. Currently, Mario Chiariello is the Principal Investigator of the Signal Transduction Unit, in Siena, at the Core Research Laboratory (CRL) of the Istituto per lo Studio, la Prevenzione e la Rete Oncologica (ISPRO). Also, he is “Primo Ricercatore” and leads a research Unit at the Institute of Clinical Physiology, Siena, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Since the beginning of his career, Mario Chiariello has been always involved in studying different aspects of the biology of different MAP kinases and small GTPases and their involvement in cancer. More recently, he concentrated his attention on MAPK15, an atypical MAP kinase, and he is now characterizing this protein as a novel potential target to develop innovative pharmacological approaches to human cancer. Contemporarily, he is participating in multi disciplinary efforts for the development of innovative therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to squamous cell tumors of the head and neck and glioblastomas, through “active” targeting and specific delivery of drugs and contrast agents to these tumors.