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Andrea Piunti

TitleAssistant Professor
InstitutionUniversity of Chicago
DepartmentPediatrics-Hematology and Oncology
AddressChicago IL 60637
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    Andrea Piunti studies chromatin biology and how its deregulation contributes to cancer onset and progression. His lab focuses on the Polycomb group (PcGs) of proteins, which are major chromatin regulators. PcG proteins are master regulators of mammalian development and cellular proliferation. They mainly exert their function through transcriptional repression achieved through their activity on chromatin. Several PcG proteins and their activities are deregulated in cancer, and they play particularly important roles in the oncogenic processes underlying rare pediatric brain tumors such as diffuse midline gliomas (DMG) and posterior fossa group A (PFA) ependymomas. Piunti works to understand how deregulation of PcG proteins in these tumors contributes to the insurgence and spreading of these and other rare malignancies.
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse education and training
    Northwestern University, Chicago (USA)Postdoctoral fellow08/2021Chromatin biology
    European Institute of Oncology, Milan (Italy)PhD03/2014Molecular Oncology
    University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan (Italy)MS09/2009Medical, molecular and cellular Biotechnology
    University of Urbin, Urbin (Italy)BSc12/2006Biotechnology
    Collapse awards and honors
    2019 - 2021K99, NCI/NIH
    2015 - 2016Long-Term Fellowship, EMBO
    2016 - 2018iCARE, AIRC-Marie Curie-EU

    Collapse Research 
    Collapse research activities and funding
    K99CA234434     (PIUNTI, ANDREA)Sep 15, 2019 - Aug 31, 2021
    NIH
    A molecular informed therapy for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPG)
    Role: Principal Investigator

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    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Chennakesavalu M, Moore K, Chaves G, Veeravalli S, TerHaar R, Wu T, Lyu R, Chlenski A, He C, Piunti A, Applebaum MA. 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Profiling of Cell-Free DNA Identifies Bivalent Genes That Are Prognostic of Survival in High-Risk Neuroblastoma. JCO Precis Oncol. 2024 Jan; 8:e2300297. PMID: 38295320; PMCID: PMC10843272.
      Citations: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    2. Chennakesavalu M, Moore K, Chaves G, Veeravalli S, TerHaar R, Wu T, Lyu R, Chlenski A, He C, Piunti A, Applebaum MA. 5-hydroxymethylcytosine profiling of cell-free DNA identifies bivalent genes that are prognostic of survival in high-risk neuroblastoma. bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 30. PMID: 37163024; PMCID: PMC10168384.
      Citations:    
    3. Forte E, Li M, Ayaloglu Butun F, Hu Q, Borst EM, Schipma MJ, Piunti A, Shilatifard A, Terhune SS, Abecassis M, Meier JL, Hummel M. Critical Role for the Human Cytomegalovirus Major Immediate Early Proteins in Recruitment of RNA Polymerase II and H3K27Ac To an Enhancer-Like Element in OriLyt. Microbiol Spectr. 2023 02 14; 11(1):e0314422. PMID: 36645269; PMCID: PMC9927211.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    4. Fong KW, Zhao JC, Lu X, Kim J, Piunti A, Shilatifard A, Yu J. PALI1 promotes tumor growth through competitive recruitment of PRC2 to G9A-target chromatin for dual epigenetic silencing. Mol Cell. 2022 12 15; 82(24):4611-4626.e7. PMID: 36476474; PMCID: PMC9812274.
      Citations: 10     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    5. Piunti A, Meghani K, Yu Y, Robertson AG, Podojil JR, McLaughlin KA, You Z, Fantini D, Chiang M, Luo Y, Wang L, Heyen N, Qian J, Miller SD, Shilatifard A, Meeks JJ. Immune activation is essential for the antitumor activity of EZH2 inhibition in urothelial carcinoma. Sci Adv. 2022 10 07; 8(40):eabo8043. PMID: 36197969; PMCID: PMC9534493.
      Citations: 15     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    6. Meghani K, Folgosa Cooley L, Piunti A, Meeks JJ. Role of Chromatin Modifying Complexes and Therapeutic Opportunities in Bladder Cancer. Bladder Cancer. 2022; 8(2):101-112. PMID: 35898580; PMCID: PMC9278011.
      Citations: 3     
    7. Piunti A, Shilatifard A. Author Correction: The roles of Polycomb repressive complexes in mammalian development and cancer. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2022 Jun; 23(6):444. PMID: 35534714.
      Citations: 1     Fields:    
    8. Ishi Y, Zhang Y, Zhang A, Sasaki T, Piunti A, Suri A, Watanabe J, Abe K, He X, Katagi H, Bhalla P, Natsumeda M, Zou L, Shilatifard A, Hashizume R. Therapeutic Targeting of EZH2 and BET BRD4 in Pediatric Rhabdoid Tumors. Mol Cancer Ther. 2022 05 04; 21(5):715-726. PMID: 35247919; PMCID: PMC9081147.
      Citations: 6     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    9. Piunti A, Shilatifard A. The roles of Polycomb repressive complexes in mammalian development and cancer. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2021 05; 22(5):326-345. PMID: 33723438.
      Citations: 146     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    10. Schachner LF, Morgan MA, Piunti A, Meiners MJ, Kafader JO, Lee AS, Iwanaszko M, Cheek MA, Burg JM, Howard SA, Keogh MC, Shilatifard A, Kelleher NL, Jooß K. Decoding the protein composition of whole nucleosomes with Nuc-MS. Nat Methods. 2021 03; 18(3):303-308. PMID: 33589837; PMCID: PMC7954958.
      Citations: 23     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    11. Douillet D, Sze CC, Ryan C, Piunti A, Shah AP, Ugarenko M, Marshall SA, Rendleman EJ, Zha D, Helmin KA, Zhao Z, Cao K, Morgan MA, Singer BD, Bartom ET, Smith ER, Shilatifard A. Uncoupling histone H3K4 trimethylation from developmental gene expression via an equilibrium of COMPASS, Polycomb and DNA methylation. Nat Genet. 2020 06; 52(6):615-625. PMID: 32393859; PMCID: PMC7790509.
      Citations: 53     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    12. Piunti A, Smith ER, Morgan MAJ, Ugarenko M, Khaltyan N, Helmin KA, Ryan CA, Murray DC, Rickels RA, Yilmaz BD, Rendleman EJ, Savas JN, Singer BD, Bulun SE, Shilatifard A. CATACOMB: An endogenous inducible gene that antagonizes H3K27 methylation activity of Polycomb repressive complex 2 via an H3K27M-like mechanism. Sci Adv. 2019 07; 5(7):eaax2887. PMID: 31281901; PMCID: PMC6609211.
      Citations: 53     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    13. Rickels R, Herz HM, Sze CC, Cao K, Morgan MA, Collings CK, Gause M, Takahashi YH, Wang L, Rendleman EJ, Marshall SA, Krueger A, Bartom ET, Piunti A, Smith ER, Abshiru NA, Kelleher NL, Dorsett D, Shilatifard A. Histone H3K4 monomethylation catalyzed by Trr and mammalian COMPASS-like proteins at enhancers is dispensable for development and viability. Nat Genet. 2017 Nov; 49(11):1647-1653. PMID: 28967912; PMCID: PMC5663216.
      Citations: 114     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    14. Piunti A, Hashizume R, Morgan MA, Bartom ET, Horbinski CM, Marshall SA, Rendleman EJ, Ma Q, Takahashi YH, Woodfin AR, Misharin AV, Abshiru NA, Lulla RR, Saratsis AM, Kelleher NL, James CD, Shilatifard A. Therapeutic targeting of polycomb and BET bromodomain proteins in diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas. Nat Med. 2017 Apr; 23(4):493-500. PMID: 28263307; PMCID: PMC5667640.
      Citations: 212     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    15. Rickels R, Hu D, Collings CK, Woodfin AR, Piunti A, Mohan M, Herz HM, Kvon E, Shilatifard A. An Evolutionary Conserved Epigenetic Mark of Polycomb Response Elements Implemented by Trx/MLL/COMPASS. Mol Cell. 2016 07 21; 63(2):318-328. PMID: 27447986; PMCID: PMC4996622.
      Citations: 36     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    16. Piunti A, Shilatifard A. Epigenetic balance of gene expression by Polycomb and COMPASS families. Science. 2016 Jun 03; 352(6290):aad9780. PMID: 27257261.
      Citations: 252     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    17. Chiacchiera F, Rossi A, Jammula S, Piunti A, Scelfo A, Koseki H, Pasini D, Ordóñez-Morán P, Huelsken J. Polycomb Complex PRC1 Preserves Intestinal Stem Cell Identity by Sustaining Wnt/ß-Catenin Transcriptional Activity. Cell Stem Cell. 2016 Jan 07; 18(1):91-103. PMID: 26526724.
      Citations: 57     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    18. Piunti A, Rossi A, Cerutti A, Albert M, Jammula S, Scelfo A, Cedrone L, Fragola G, Olsson L, Koseki H, Testa G, Casola S, Helin K, d'Adda di Fagagna F, Pasini D. Polycomb proteins control proliferation and transformation independently of cell cycle checkpoints by regulating DNA replication. Nat Commun. 2014 Apr 14; 5:3649. PMID: 24728135; PMCID: PMC3996544.
      Citations: 53     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
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