The laboratory section of the Hematology Unit of Policlinico of Milan dedicated to study RNP Granules in Hematologic Malignancies (RGHM Lab) is led by Dr Giulia Biancon and located in the city center of Milan, Italy.

The RGHM Lab aims at integrating omics technologies to investigate and target dysregulations of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules, condensates of RNAs and RNA binding proteins, in the context of splicing factor-mutant myeloid malignancies.

Splicing factor (SF) mutations are a hallmark of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). U2AF1 and SRSF2 mutations, in particular, affect binding and splicing of thousands of RNA molecules. Changes in RNP granules are the result of the collection of RNA alterations caused by SF mutations and could represent a unifying oncogenic mechanism sustaining the clonal advantage of SF mutant cells in the bone marrow microenvironment.

Ongoing Research Projects: 1) identifying the key forces behind enhanced stress granules in SF-mutant MDS/AML cells; 2) understanding the link between SF mutations and changes in nuclear RNP granules involved in transcriptional kinetics; 3) studying RNP granule dependance in normal hematopoiesis and under disease-associated conditions.