The Keystone Program in Epigenetics and Progenitor Cells

Alfonso Bellacosa, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Leader, Keystone Program in Epigenetics and Progenitor Cells

Dr. Alfonso Bellacosa is a tenured member of the faculty at Fox Chase Cancer Center. His research is focused on the role that DNA repair defects play in the pathogenesis of cancer and in the response of cancer to therapy. He is also interested in the identification of early genetic changes during tumor development in order to devise novel strategies for early detection and prevention of cancer. Bellacosa is the author or co-author of more than 85 original and review articles on cancer genetics, including risk factors, survival and prevention of colon cancer. He has made pivotal contributions in two very different areas. He discovered AKT, a retroviral oncogene, while he was a postdoctoral fellow at Fox Chase. Later, as an independent investigator, he studied a novel DNA repair gene, MED1/ MBD4, involved in base excision and mismatch repair. He then discovered that MED1 is required to signal cell cycle arrest or programmed cell death (apoptosis) in response to chemotherapy drugs such as 5-fluorouracil and alkylating agents. At Fox Chase, he is an active member of the Human Genetics and Tumor Cell Biology working groups, and serves on the LAF Oversight Committee. In 1993, he received the “Sir Paul Girolami” Glaxo Award for Innovative Research in Biology and Medicine, for the discovery of AKT. After receiving his M.D. summa cum laude from Catholic University Medical School in Rome, Bellacosa joined Fox Chase as a postdoctoral fellow in 1989. He received his Ph.D. in genetics “avec la mention Très Honorable” from the University of Paris in 2004. Bellacosa is a diplomate of the Italian Board of Medicine and the Postgraduate School of Hematology of the Catholic University. He belongs to the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Italian Group for the Study of Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer and the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer among other professional organizations.