Alessandro Vasciaveo PhD

Dr. Vasciaveo joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as an assistant professor in computational biology and artificial intelligence in fall 2024. Prior to joining the institute, he was an associate research scientist at Columbia University in New York City, in the laboratory of Andrea Califano — a pioneer in the field of systems biology and in the reverse engineering and interrogation of gene regulatory networks.

Vasciaveo’s laboratory focuses on leveraging massive datasets, including from single-cell biology, and advanced machine learning to uncover critical insights into how cells communicate and function in healthy and diseased states, and to identify key players of disease programs that can serve as precise therapeutic targets. This approach will allow for more precise treatments tailored to each patient’s unique biology, pushing the boundaries of traditional medicine. These efforts have the potential to significantly accelerate the process of identifying new therapies for challenging diseases.

Vasciaveo earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Computer Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy. He completed his doctoral degree in Systems and Control Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin while conducting research as a visiting scientist at the German Cancer Research Center and Columbia University.

Honors and Recognition

2024: People’s Choice Poster Award at 2024 CSBC / MetNet Annual Investigators Meeting
2024: AACR-Barbara Campbell Creighton Scholar-in-Training Award
2023: Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Trainee Associate Member (TAM) Best Paper Award
2023: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) – Sanofi Scholar-in-Training Award
2023: Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Trainee Associate Member Travel Award
2022: European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) Annual Congress 2022 Bursary Travel Award
2022: Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Early Career Development Pilot Award
2022: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) – Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Scholar-in-Training Award
2022: Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Trainee Associate Member Travel Award
2021: Merck Innovation Cup 2021 Runner-Up Prize in Team Oncology
2021: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) – Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Scholar-in-Training Award
2019: Early Investigator Research Award, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S.
2019: Best Presentation Award, 6th International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School (SSBSS 2019), Pisa, Italy
2016: Research Quality Award, Dept. of Computer and Control Engineering, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy
2014: Travel Award to attend the 13th Summer School on Scientific Visualization, Milan, Italy

Dr. Vasciaveo’s overarching research interests revolve around two highly interdependent fields, including the identification and characterization of cancer biomarkers and data/computation-driven drug discovery. He is particularly intrigued by the complex cellular mechanisms underpinning therapy resistance, a critical challenge in the field of oncology. To address this, he specializes in developing Machine Learning (ML) models tailored to the model-based analysis of single-cell ‘omics data, especially using regulatory and signaling networks. These models have enabled us to unravel cellular aberrations and responses to therapy with unprecedented precision.

Dr. Vasciaveo’s ultimate aim is to translate these insights into actionable solutions that drive clinically-relevant advancements in cancer therapy. For instance, he has been privileged to collaborate on several transformative projects, ranging from the computational identification of actionable targets and compounds capable of disrupting the regulatory programs driving lethal cancers to employing computational techniques to pinpoint chemical compounds and elucidate their mechanisms of action. These discoveries hold significant promise as potential therapies for combatting aggressive tumors, including those driven by the MYC proto-oncogene.