Research projects

Outside the lab, Dr Fre enjoys being outdoors, reading and spending time with friends. Her favorite activities are dancing, skiing and hiking. She also loves to travel and discover new cultures. She is fluent in four languages and would like to learn more.

The cells in your body often divide to make new cells, as part of keeping your body healthy. When skin cells divide they can only make more skin cells, and likewise for most of your cells. Stem cells are different though, because they are not yet specialised and have the ability to mature into different types of cells. This is how cells in your bone marrow can create important blood cells and immune system cells.

Tumours also contain stem cells which are crucial for their growth and play an important role in tumour recurrence and metastasis. Cancer stem cells are therefore a promising target for cancer treatments. However, cancer stem cells closely resemble normal stem cells in our bodies, making it difficult to design therapies targeting specifically these cells in tumours while sparing the normal stem cells. Dr Silvia Fre wants to use cutting-edge techniques to help us better understand the specific features and behaviours of cancer stem cells.

Organoids are “mini-organs” grown in the lab that resemble the tissues inside our bodies, and ‘tumouroids’ are similar tools grown from tumours. Dr Fre and her team will use organoids and tumouroids to unravel the molecular mechanisms essential for cancer stem cell survival. Time-lapse microscopy will be used to explore how cancer stem cells behave and interact with surrounding cells. This project will reveal the role of cancer stem cells and will be a stepping stone towards new ways to diagnose and treat cancer.