Distinguished Member of Cancer Genetics
Department of Cancer Biology

Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo, NY 14263
Telephone: (716)845-1053
Laboratory: (716) 845-1054
Fax: (716) 845-1741 
E-mail: Nicoletta.Sacchi@RoswellPark.org

Dr. Nicoletta Sacchi joined the faculty of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in 2003, as a Distinguished Member of Cancer Genetics. Dr. Sacchi comes to RPCI from the School of Medicine, University of Milan, Italy, where she was an Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics with a joint visiting faculty appointment at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD.

Dr. Sacchi earned a magna cum laude degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Milan in 1973. She completed postdoctoral training in different fields of human genetics at the School of Medicine of Milan, the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (1977) and the Roche Institute of Immunology, Basel, Switzerland (1980), where she enjoyed the mentorship of the Nobel Prize winner, George Köhler, PhD. 

In 1982 she became a Research Instructor of Biochemistry at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, and from 1984 to 1991 she was a Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). While studying the transcriptional regulation of oncogenes she developed together with Dr. Piotr Chomczynski, the classic "Single Step Method for RNA Isolation" (1987) which has dramatically advanced the whole field of RNA-based technologies and the discovery of regulatory RNAs. In the early nineties, Dr. Sacchi was one of the first geneticists who demonstrated the potential of the emerging human genome project for cancer genetics by identifying the molecular lesion of a common human leukemia, for which stemmed   a method for the rapid and ultrasensitive detection of leukemic cells. At the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Sacchi’s research focused on epigenetic mechanisms of gene silencing in breast tumorigenesis, and the development   of aberrantly methylated genes as markers of breast malignancy.  

Her current basic research focuses on the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on chromatin-mediated gene transcription; novel pathogenic mechanisms of transcriptional repression / activation; epigenetic mechanisms and chromatin remodeling in normal and cancer cells.   

Dr. Sacchi is recipient of grants and awards from national and international agencies and foundations, including the NCI, the DOD, the Susan Komen Foundation,    the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, the AROCC Foundation, the AIRC (Italy), the MIUR (Italy), Cariplo Foundation (Italy). She served as ad hoc reviewer for the NIH-NCI,   and is on the panel of Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology of the European Research Council (ERC).

She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Association for Cell Biology, The American Association of Cancer Research, and serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Oncology, Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics, and Research Letters in Biochemistry.

Dr. Sacchi has published over 110 peer reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and reviews. She was named as a “Highly Cited Researcher in Biology and Biochemistry,” by the Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA (2001). She received the honor of Commander of Merit from  the President of Italy  in 2007.