Denise Maria Cuscela

Denise Maria Cuscela obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Bari in 2018. During this period, she gained her first laboratory experience in molecular and cellular biology, acquiring practical skills in techniques such as spectrophotometry, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, and fluorescence microscopy. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the intestinal transport of amino acids.

In 2019, she joined Janssen Pharmaceutica (Johnson & Johnson, Belgium) as a laboratory technician, where she worked in a GMP environment on the development and validation of Raman spectroscopy-based methods for the identification of raw materials and pharmaceutical products.

Motivated to further specialize in biomedical research, she pursued a Master’s degree in Translational Biomedical Sciences, which she completed in 2024. During her studies, she was awarded an Erasmus+ grant to carry out a research internship at the Complutense University of Madrid. There, she investigated the role of the pseudokinase TRIB3 in prostate cancer progression, using both in vitro (PC3 and DU145 cell lines) and in vivo models. Her work included migration and invasion assays, molecular analyses, and the management and genotyping of genetically modified mouse models.

Since January 2025, she is a PhD researcher at the IMDEA Nanoscience Institute. Her research focuses on the development of nanomedicine-based strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers with limited therapeutic options. In particular, her work involves the design and functionalization of inorganic nanoparticles with nucleic acids, such as aptamers, miRNAs, and antisense oligonucleotides.