I am highly interested in investigating the role of DNA damage in colon cancer with a focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying cancer development and discovering novel therapeutic approaches. I have been developing murine models that faithfully recapitulate the initiation of colon tumorigenesis in a mismatch repair (MMR) deficient genetic background to understand the processes that support tumor growth and further develop novel effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of MMR deficient colon cancers. Moreover, these models will help to elucidate the role of cancer stem cells in MMR-deficiency driven tumorigenesis and to understand the mechanisms that support tumor growth and further to investigate their role in immunotherapy response and disease recurrence. I am also currently investigating the effect of microbiota manipulation and diet regimen on tumor modulation and development.

• Tosti E, Waldbaum L, Warshaw G, Gross EA, Ruggieri R. “The stress kinase MRK contributes to regulation of DNA damage checkpoints through a p38 gamma-Vanan I, Dong Z, Tosti E, Warshaw G, Symons M, Ruggieri R “Role of a DNA damage checkpoint pathway in ionizing radiation-induced glioblastoma cell migration and invasion.Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2012 Oct;32(7):1199-208
• Ryan CJ, Roguev A, Patrick K, Xu J, Jahari H, Tong Z, Beltrao P, Shales M, Qu H, Collins SR, Kliegman JI, Jiang L, Kuo D, Tosti E, Kim HS, Edelmann W, Keogh MC, Greene D, Tang C, Cunningham P, Shokat KM, Cagney G, Svensson JP, Guthrie C, Espenshade PJ, Ideker T, Krogan NJ ; “Hierarchical modularity and the evolution of genetic interactomes across species”. 
 Mol Cell. 2012 Jun 8; 46(5): 691-704. 
• Tosti E., Katakowsi J., Schaetzlein S., Kim H-S., Ryan C.J, Shales M., Roguev A., NKrogan N.J., Palliser D., Keogh M.C., Edelmann W. Genome wide identification of genetic interactions in DNA mismatch repair Genome Med. 2014 Sep 17;6(9):68
• Stefan M. Woerner, Tosti E, Yan-Ping Yuan Peer Bork, Winfried Edelmann, Johannes Gebert. "Detection of Coding Microsatellite Frameshift Mutations in DNA Mismatch Repair-Deficient Mouse Intestinal Tumors. Mol Carcinog. 2014 Sep 11
• Kyeryoung Lee, Elena Tosti and Winfried Edelmann Mouse Models of DNA Mismatch Repair in Cancer Research”, DNA Repair DNA Repair (Amst). 2015 Dec 4.
• Johannes Gebert, Ozkan Gelincik, Mine Oezcan-Wahlbrink, Jason D Marshall, Alejandro Hernandez-Sanchez, Katharina Urban, Mark Long, Eduardo Cortes, Elena Tosti, Eva-Maria Katzenmaier, Yurong Song, Ali Elsaadi, Nan Deng, Eduardo Vilar, Vera Fuchs, Nina Nelius, Yan P Yuan, Aysel Ahadova, Shizuko Sei, Robert H Shoemaker, Asad Umar, Lei Wei, Song Liu, Peer Bork, Winfried Edelmann, Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz, Steven M Lipkin, Matthias Kloor. “Recurrent Frameshift Neoantigen Vaccine Elicits Protective Immunity with Reduced Tumor Burden and Improved Overall Survival in a Lynch Syndrome Mouse Model”. Gastroenterology 2021 Oct;161(4):1288-1302. 
• Bommi PV, Bowen CM, Reyes-Uribe L, Wu W, Katayama H, Rocha P, Parra ER, Francisco-Cruz A, Ozcan Z, Tosti E, Willis JA, Wu H, Taggart MW, Burks JK, Lynch PM, Edelmann W, Scheet PA, Wistuba II, Sinha KM, Hanash SM, Vilar E. The Transcriptomic Landscape of Mismatch Repair-Deficient Intestinal Stem Cells. Cancer Res. 2021 May 15;81(10):2760-2773.
• Tosti E*, Almeida AS, Tran TTT, Barbachan E Silva M, Broin PÓ, Dubin R, Chen K, Beck AP, Mclellan AS, Vilar E, Golden A, O'Toole PW, Edelmann W*. 2022. “Loss of MMR and TGFBR2 Increases the Susceptibility to Microbiota-Dependent Inflammation-Associated Colon Cancer. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022;14(3):693-717”. (*corresponding authors).
• Wang S, Lee K, Gray S, Zhang Y, Tang C, Morrish RB, Tosti E, van Oers J, Amin MR, Cohen PE, MacCarthy T, Roa S, Scharff MD, Edelmann W* and Chahwan R. 2022. Role of EXO1 nuclease activity in genome maintenance, the immune response and tumor suppression in Exo1D173A mice. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Aug 12;50(14):8093-8106. (*corresponding author).
• Tosti E, Srivastava N, Edelmann W. Invited review. Vaccination and microbiota manipulation approaches for colon cancer prevention in rodent models. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 2023; 16 (8): 429–438.