Dissecting the role of neurotrophins-driven pathways in obese patients' colorectal cancer progression

The project combines experimental wet lab approaches and bioinformatic analyses to investigate the role of neurotrophins in colorectal cancer progression in obese patients. On the wet lab side, cellular models will be employed to assess the activation of neurotrophin signaling pathways, analyzing protein and gene expression through immunohistochemistry, western blot, and flow cytometry. In parallel, transcriptomic data generated by sequencing and spatial transcriptomics will be processed using dedicated bioinformatic pipelines, with the aim of identifying gene expression patterns associated with tumor progression and obesity. The integration of both approaches will allow the correlation of molecular alterations observed in vitro and in vivo with the transcriptional profiles of tumor tissues, providing a systemic view of the mechanisms through which neurotrophins modulate the tumor microenvironment under conditions of obesity.