Francesca Menghi, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) for Genomic Medicine. Her research explores the genome-wide patterns of genetic and transcriptional alterations that are implicated in the origin, evolution and treatment response behavior of breast and ovarian cancer, with the goal of identifying novel genomic vulnerabilities that may help the management of patients with cancer in the clinic.

She recently revealed how a previously overlooked genomic configuration, the tandem duplicator phenotype (TDP), contributes to the oncogenic burden of more than half of all triple-negative breast cancers and ovarian carcinomas by orchestrating the coordinated disruption of several cancer genes throughout the genome. More recently, her research has focused on understanding how different modes of disruption of the BRCA1 gene, one of the genes most affected in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, result in different therapeutic response outcomes, suggesting that stratification of patients carrying BRCA1 inactivation is warranted to achieve optimal clinical care. This work is the foundation for her current explorations to utilize genomic and epigenetic classification as a stratification tool to identify precision therapies tailored to the genomic features of a patient’s cancer and ultimately improve clinical care.

She came to JAX from the Genome Institute of Singapore where she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow.