Martina Bazzaro, Ph.D.

mbazzaro@umn.edu
612-626-3111 - office

Dr. Bazzaro is Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Division of Gynecologic Oncology and in the Masonic Cancer Center.

Dr. Bazzaro received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2001 from the Institute of Medicinal Chemistry of University of Ferrara (Italy) and Institute of Biochemistry of University of Lausanne (Switzerland).

After completing her Ph.D. program, Dr. Bazzaro was Guest Researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden) before completing her post-doctoral fellowship in the Pathology Department at the Johns Hopkins University.

The long-term objectives of Dr. Bazzaro’s laboratory are:

a) to develop targeted therapies for treatment of ovarian and HPV-associated cervical cancer.
b) to develop and characterize new biomarkers for early-detection ovarian cancer.
c) to identify and characterize molecules associated with ovarian cancer development and progression.
d) to understand the role of angiogenesis in ovarian cancer progression.

Selected publications:

Lin Z.*, Bazzaro M*, Peng SW, and Roden RBS. Combination of Proteasome and HDAC6 Inhibitors for Therapy of Uterine Cervical Cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 15;15(2):570-7, 2009. (* Equal contribution).

Bazzaro M, Lin Z, Santillan A, Lee MK, Wang MC, Chan KC, Bristow RE, Mazitschek R, Bradner J, and Roden RBS. Ubiquitin Proteasome System Stress Underlies Synergistic Killing of Ovarian Cancer Cells by Bortezomib and a Novel HDAC6 Inhibitor. Clinical Cancer Research, 15;14(22):7340-7, 2008 (Cover).

Bazzaro M, Santillan A, Lin Z, Tang T, Lee MK, Bristow RE, Shih IeM, Roden RB. Myosin II Co-chaperone General Cell UNC-45 Overexpression is Associated with Ovarian Cancer, Rapid Proliferation, and Motility. American Journal of Pathology 171(5): 1640-1649, 2007.

Bazzaro M, Lee MK, Zoso A, Stirling W, Santillan A, Shih IE and Roden R.B.S. Ubiquitin-Proteasomal System Stress Sensitizes Ovarian Cancer to Proteasome Inhibitor-Induced Apoptosis. Cancer Research, 66(7): 3754-63, 2006.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Bortolotti F, Tomatis R. Synthesis and activity of N-benzyl pseudopeptides HIV protease inhibitors. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 11(11) 2477-83, 2003.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Micheletti F, Gavioli R, Tomatis R. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitope analogues containing cis- or trans-4-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid residues. Bioorg Med. Chem. 10 (9): 3061-6, 2002.

Vertuani S, Bazzaro M, Gualandi G, Micheletti F, Marastoni M, Canella A, Marino M, Tomatis R, Traniello S, and Gavioli R. Effect of interferon-alpha therapy on epitope-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in hepatitis C virus-infected individuals.
Eur. J. Immunol. 32:144-154, 2002

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Micheletti F, Gavioli R, Tomatis R. Peptide analogues of a subdominant epitope expressed in EBV-associated tumors: synthesis and immunological activity. J. Med. Chem. 44:2370-2373, 2001.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Bortolotti F, Tomatis M. Synthesis and activity of new acylated diaminohydroxy- alkanes as human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitors. Arzneim.–Forsch./ Drug Res.50:564-568, 2000.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Gavioli R, Micheletti F, Traniello S, and Tomatis R. Design of dimeric peptides obtained from subdominant Epstein-Barr virus LMP2-derived epitope. Eur. J. Med.Chem. 35:1-6, 2000.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Salvadori S, Bortolotti F, Tomatis R. HIV-1 protease inhibitors containing an N-hydroxyamino acid core structure. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 9: 939-945, 2000.

Marastoni M, Bazzaro M, Bortolotti F, Salvadori S, Tomatis R. Symmetry-based inhibitors of HIV-protease. Design, synthesis and preliminary structure-activity studies of acylated 2,3-diamino-1-hydroxypropanes and 2,4 diamino-1-hydroxybutanes. Eur. J. Med. Chem.34: 651-657, 1999.

Micheletti F, Bazzaro M, Canella A, Marastoni M, Tomatis R, Traniello S, Gavioli S. The lifespan of major histocompatibility complex class I/peptide complexes determines the efficiency of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. Immunology 96: 411-415, 1999.