Antonio Giordano

Giordano grew up in Naples, Italy, where his father, Giovan Giacomo Giordano, was an oncologist and a pathologist at the National Cancer Institute of Naples and a professor at the University of Naples. Antonio Giordano decided to branch out and start a research career more oriented to genetics applied to pathology.[1] Early on, while following his father's research, he became interested in the link between the environment and the effect of toxic waste with the increasing cancer rates in the Campania region in Italy.[2] Giordano earned his medical degree at the University of Naples in 1986, and he his doctorate at the University of Trieste in 1990.[3] He began to work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New Yorkin 1988, working in a progra that dealt with the cell-division cycle.[1]

Giordano is president of Sbarro Health Research Organization and director of the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He works on molecular therapeutics , and also studies the connections between obesity and cancer.[4]

Antonio Giordano met Mario Sbarro, the president of Sbarro, an international pizza restaurant chain, while at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[5] Sbarro donated one million dollars to start the Sbarro Institute in 1993[6] at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In 2002, Giordano moved his team to Temple University, also in Philadelphia. The Sbarro Institute was renamed Sbarro Health Research Organization (S.H.R.O.). The organization has a commitment in the mentoring of young researchers,[4] and is dedicated to finding cures for cancer and cardiovascular diseases by identifying their underlying molecular mechanisms. The new center includes the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine.[2]

The organization is funded through private grants and donations,[2] as well as several awards from the National Institutes of Health.[7] It holds the restricted license to more than ten patents for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the treatment of cancer. It has international partnerships with the Universities of Siena, Rome, and Verona,[8] In 2009, the organization was relocated into a 20,000 square foot facility at Temple University, the Biotechnology Research Center. .[9]

In his research throughout the years, Giordano identified a tumor suppressor gene, Rb2/p130, that has been found to be active in lung, endometrial, brain, breast, liver and ovarian cancers. He also found that if doses of gamma radiation are combined with this gene, it accelerates the death of tumor cells.[6] Giordano went on to discover Cyclin A, Cdk9, and Cdk10. Cdk9 is known to play critical roles in HIV transcriptions, inception of tumors, and cell differentiation,[3] They also play a part in muscle differentiation[10] and have been linked to various genetic muscular disorders. Giordano also developed patented technologies for diagnosing cancer.[1]

Giordano has published over 400 papers on gene therapy, cell cycle, genetics of cancer, and epidemiology.[4] In 2011, Giordano and his team uncovered anti-tumor agents that might be effective in the treatment of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by prolonged asbestos exposure. Giordano and his team discovered that they could induce cell death without harming healthy cells.[11]

Antonio Giordano teamed up with Melissa Napolitano and Giuseppe Russo to determine if watching a computer animated avatar could assist women to lose weight.[12]

Giordano analyzed the environmental relations among toxic dumping and cancer growth for over fifteen years in Campania, Italy. The Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia, was illegally disposing of their toxic waste, and politicians were covering it up for years. They were receiving money for dumping their heavy metals and compounds known to cause cancer. The toxic waste was burnt in fields and waste ground, in a region known as the Triangle of Death. In some areas, there was a twelve percent increase in cancer. Birth defects were also increased by more than eighty percent affecting the central nervous systems.[5] [13]

Giordano has received the Irving J. Selikoff Award for Cancer Research, the Rotary International Award, Lions Club Napoli-Europa . He has also been received the title of Knight by the President of the Republic of Italy.[11] At the 25th anniversary of the National Organization of Italian American Women, he was awarded the Cross of Merit Melitense, an honor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, from.[7] Dr. Riccardo Mastrangeli, Knight of Magistral Grace of the Order of Malta.

Giordano lives in Radnor, Pennsylvania with his wife, Mina, and three children. His youngest child, Luca, is currently pursuing a career in Latin American Studies.[1]