Dr. Conca Elena

I graduated in 2006 with a thesis on the molecular biology of a hereditary form of Parkinson’s disease, and completed my internship at the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute in Milan. I then began my career at the National Cancer Institute of Milan, in the Department of Pathology, focusing on the molecular characterization of solid tumors for predictive purposes. Over time, I expanded my expertise from common carcinomas to rare tumors such as sarcomas, as well as translational research, deepening my knowledge of biochemistry, cell biology, and primary cultures derived from tumor tissues.

I gained further experience at San Raffaele Hospital, where I worked on protein crystallization in the field of neuro-oncology, and at Policlinico Hospital (Dino Ferrari Center), in the ultrastructural diagnostics of rare neuromuscular diseases.

Since 2017, I have been working in the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory on next-generation sequencing (NGS), initially with targeted panels on the Ion Torrent platform and, since 2020, also with comprehensive genomic profiling on the Illumina platform. I actively participate in the Tumor Mutational Board, collaborating daily with a multidisciplinary team of lab technicians, bioinformaticians, pathologists, and oncologists.

In 2019, I was appointed as a Researcher, and since 2023 I have been pursuing further training in bioinformatic analysis. I have learned the R programming language and have been conducting genomic and transcriptomic analyses in the context of precision medicine, with the goal of contributing to an increasingly integrated diagnostic-research approach.