Pamela Pinzani's Biography

Pamela Pinzani, Technical Coordinator, University of Florence

Pamela Pinzani graduated in 1985 from Florence University in Italy discussing a thesis at the Faculty of Biology. After post-degree periods as visiting scientist at the University of Medicine in Lubeck (Germany) and at the Dept. of Hormone Research of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel), she worked on the application and development of immunological methods with non-isotopic tracer and on the optimization of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence assays to investigate urinary metabolites of steroid hormones and proteins and for the use of the enzyme luciferase as reporter gene. More recently she demonstrated a special interest in molecular technologies for the optimization of real-time quantitative PCR protocols to assess the clinical significance of altered gene-expression profiles in the context of human solid tumors. Moreover she focused her studies on the blood compartment as a source of biomolecular markers to be used like diagnostic and prognostic parameters. In this context she developed methods for the measurement of tumor-related markers in cell-free plasma DNA and for the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood of oncological patients. She was involved in the organization of 6 courses or International meeting on Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence Applications from 1993 to 1998 and of 10 courses or meetings on real-time PCR from 2000 to 2010.She participated as a speaker to about 30 International Scientific Meetings. She is author of about 75 publications in International peer reviewed journals, 30 papers included in national and international books and 20 manuscripts published in national journals.