Alessio Giubellino

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Credentials

MD, PhD

Bio

Dr. Giubellino is a board-certified anatomic pathologist and dermatopathologist with a strong research background in cellular/tissue biology and translational research. As a physician-scientist he contributed to the advancement of several basic science, translational and clinical research projects, lately with a particular focus on melanocytic lesions and other dermatologic diseases. He has employed different molecular and cellular techniques and immunohistochemical analysis of tissue samples to bridge basic science and clinical medicine.

One of Dr. Giubellino chief interests has been the investigation and development of biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, as well as for prognostic and predictive purposes. This interest stems from prior work on receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and receptor-mediated downstream signaling molecules in tumor progression. During his work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Giubellino has contributed to defining the proto-oncogene MET, the tyrosine kinase receptor for the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), as a cancer biomarker, he has developed xenograft mouse models of tumor progression and discovered novel therapeutic approaches, including targeting adaptor proteins, like GRB2, in the downstream signaling of RTKs, for a variety of neoplasms.

Given the concurrent role of MET in the modulation of the immune response and the interplay with immune checkpoints in other malignancies, Dr. Giubellino investigated the expression pattern of MET and the immune checkpoint PD-L1, a relevant target for immunotherapy, and found that these two surface receptors follow a similar expression pattern in metastatic melanoma (and not in primary melanoma) and published this observation in the journal Cancers (2020). Additional studies are currently underway to understand this relationship.

More recently Dr. Giubellino has been involved in several studies using the relatively new technology of Spatial Transcriptomics and Spatial Proteomics, techniques that allow the precise localization of multiple mRNAs and proteins in a morphologic context in tissue samples.

Moreover, Dr. Giubellino research group is exploring the use of digital pathology and artificial intelligence to enhance diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of clinical tissue samples. An example of this type of study has been published in Histopathology (2021) where his research group estimated precise melanoma tumor burden by digital cell counting in sentinel lymph nodes on whole slide images (WSI) using an open-source software for digital pathology.

Giubellino thinks this comprehensive approach will reveal relevant biomarkers to help clinicians to improve the life and management of patients visiting our Clinics and Health System.

Research Summary

Publications

Journal articles

Ernst M, Giubellino A. The Current State of Treatment and Future Directions in Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma. Biomedicines. 2022 Mar 31;10(4):822. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10040822. PMID: 35453572; PMCID: PMC9029866.

Argyris PP, Naumann J, Jarvis MC, Wilkinson PE, Ho DP, Islam MN, Bhattacharyya I, Gopalakrishnan R, Li F, Koutlas IG, Giubellino A, Harris RS. Primary mucosal melanomas of the head and neck are characterised by overexpression of the DNA mutating enzyme APOBEC3B. Histopathology. 2023 Mar;82(4):608-621. doi: 10.1111/his.14843. Epub 2022 Dec 5. PMID: 36416305; PMCID: PMC10107945.

Cheng TW, Ahern MC, Giubellino A. The Spectrum of Spitz Melanocytic Lesions: From Morphologic Diagnosis to Molecular Classification. Front Oncol. 2022 Jun 7;12:889223. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.889223. PMID: 35747831; PMCID: PMC9209745.

Ernst M, Lundgren M, Evans MD, Miller D, Giubellino A. The mixed spongiotic and interface reaction pattern: A study of clinical and histopathologic findings. J Cutan Pathol. 2022 Dec;49(12):1051-1059. doi: 10.1111/cup.14306. Epub 2022 Aug 18. PMID: 36445270; PMCID: PMC9709294.

Ernst M, Giubellino A. Histopathologic Features of Maculopapular Drug Eruption. Dermatopathology (Basel). 2022 Mar 30;9(2):111-121. doi: 10.3390/dermatopathology9020014. PMID: 35466243; PMCID: PMC9036233.

Hartsough EM, Miller D, Shanley R, Domingo-Musibay E, Giubellino A. Sentinel lymph node tumour burden using digital cell count estimation predicts outcomes in melanoma. Histopathology. 2022 May;80(6):954-964. doi: 10.1111/his.14541. Epub 2022 Mar 24. PMID: 34402533.

Song KY, Desar S, Pengo T, Shanley R, Giubellino A. Correlation of MET and PD-L1 Expression in Malignant Melanoma. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Jul 9;12(7):1847. doi: 10.3390/cancers12071847. PMID: 32659961; PMCID: PMC7408820.

Zhou Y, Song KY, Giubellino A. The Role of MET in Melanoma and Melanocytic Lesions. Am J Pathol. 2019 Nov;189(11):2138-2148. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2019.08.002. Epub 2019 Aug 30. PMID: 31476283.

Toyama A, Siegel L, Nelson AC, Najmuddin M, Bu L, LaRue R, Henzler C, Caicedo-Granados E, Giubellino A, Li F. Analyses of molecular and histopathologic features and expression of PRAME by immunohistochemistry in mucosal melanomas. Mod Pathol. 2019 Dec;32(12):1727-1733. doi: 10.1038/s41379-019-0335-4. Epub 2019 Aug 2. PMID: 31375769; PMCID: PMC6881537.

Book chapters

Frye Naharro E., Zhou Y. and Giubellino A. (2021). Malignant Melanoma: from Molecular Characterization to targeted therapy. Volume on Cancer . In Comprehensive Pharmacology, Edited by Terry Kenakin. Elsevier