Dr. Annalisa Di Ruscio is an Assistant Professor in Medicine in the division of Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, at Harvard Medical School. She received her MD from the Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Rome in 2004. While completing the Hematology fellowship she moved to Boston, in 2007, to join Dr. Tenen’s group at Harvard Medical School, and she started working on long non-coding RNAs. Upon completion of the clinical fellowship in 2008, she returned to Dr. Tenen’s laboratory as a visiting PhD student for the entire duration of the program until 2012. Thereafter she joined Dr. Tenen’s laboratory as a post-doctoral fellow to continue her studies on long non-coding RNAs . She discovered a class of novel RNAs, termed DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1)-interacting RNAs (DiRs), that play a key role in controlling cell type-specific DNA methylation patterns. This discovery defined a paradigm shift on the existing view on DNA methylation establishment offering a trailblazing perspective on the relationship between transcription and DNA methylation.

Dr. Di Ruscio established a laboratory at the end of 2017 with the main goal to understand the impact of transcriptional activity in the establishment of DNA methylation as well as other epigenetic marks. Another major interest is to define the translational potential of RNAs as a tool to correct aberrant DNA methylation - one of the most common molecular lesions in cancer cells. Particularly, Di Ruscio’s group investigates the functional role of DiRs in myeloid disorders that are characterized by abnormal DNA methylation profile, such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and MDS evolution to acute myeloid leukemia. To this end, Di Ruscio’s group has been developing DiR-mimicking platforms to correct DNA methylation profile both globally and selectively. This pioneering approach shows promise in overcoming the toxicity and lack of specificity of the existing FDA-approved hypomethylating therapies for MDS, which will greatly improve cancer patients’ care.