Antonella De Luca, MD, received her degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies in 1995 at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Genoa, Italy and the speciality board in Pharmacology in 2000 at the Medical School, University Federico II, Naples, Italy. She gained experience in preclinical pharmacology research first at the University Federico II, and subsequently at the National Cancer Institute Fondazione Pascale, Naples, where she worked as post-doctoral fellow from November 1996 to April 2008.

Dr De Luca is currently senior investigator at the Department of Research at the National Cancer Institute Fondazione Pascale. Her main research interest is the role of the EGF-like growth factors and their receptors in the pathogenesis of human carcinomas. Her research activity has also focused on the mechanisms of action and the anti-tumour activity of biological agents, such as antisense oligonucleotides, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, inhibitors of signalling transduction and on combinations of these drugs by using both in vitro and in vivo approaches. She also studied the role of the EGFR on the cross-talk between mesenchymal stem cells and tumour cells.

More recently, Dr De Luca has studied the potential role of EGFR-expressing circulating tumour cells as prognostic factor in cancer patients.

Dr De Luca is co-author of 55 papers published in peer-reviewed.