Sharon Scardellato completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Medical Biotechnology from the Università del Piemonte Orientale, where she worked on gene therapy for hemophilia A, developing and testing Factor VIII constructs using lentiviral vectors. She also completed a fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, investigating AAV serotypes and their capacity to target liver sinusoidal endothelial cells.

She then obtained her PhD in Molecular Oncology from the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM), conducting her research at IFOM in Milan. During her doctoral studies, she focused on mechanisms of resistance to immune checkpoint therapy using patient-derived organoids. As a postdoctoral fellow, she studied how colorectal cancers interact with the immune system, investigating how tumor-secreted factors shape immune surveillance and modulate anti-tumor responses.

Sharon currently works in Vanessa LaPointe’s group on an organoid-based cell therapy project for conjunctival disease, contributing to organoid characterization and the adaptation of processes to GMP standards.