 Hi I am Francesco Iorio and I am a research group leader in the Center for Computational Biology of Human Technology. Hi I am Lucia Trastulla, I am a postdoc in Iorio's group. Hi I am Alessandro Vincetti and I am a PhD student in the Iorio's group. In our group we focus mainly on functional genomics and pharmacogenomics of cancer. That means that our main goal is to try to understand and predict how genomic alterations and other molecular features of cancer cells contribute to sustain their uncontrolled proliferation and have an impact on therapeutic response in patients and we do that with computers. My main research focus consists in the identification of so-called cancer weaknesses based on the analysis and integration of different types of genetic data. These data are the result of broad international efforts in which thousands of cancer models have been and are being screened. We mainly work on large public databases as well as on data that we have started to increasingly generate on site. This data encompass the genome of thousands of cancer patients as well as is the result of experiments that are performed on cancer in vitro models such as cell lines and organoids and in this experiment we treat these models with drugs as well as genetic perturbations and we measure how this model responds both in terms of viability so survival as well as change in activity of individual genes and we apply to this data computational methods from mathematics, statistics as well as machine learning in the hope of identifying new cancer vulnerabilities and dependencies that may be exploited for designing new therapies. My research focuses on enhancing personalized medicine in cancer, finding the most effective treatment for a patient's population. In order to do that and to achieve the best outcome possible we leverage biological models such as immortalized cancer cell line and organoids growing in vitro for which an extensive knowledge is collected in terms of drugs that kill tumor cells and gene targets meaning gene that when removed from the DNA via CRISPR-Cas9 genome manipulation technology they can cause a sudden death of the tumor cells. Besides these we put a lot of effort in making sure that all the software and the tools that we design are open source easily accessible by the entire community and usable in a friendly way also by non-computational scientists. The most exciting aspect in working in HT is the sharing culture not only from our group but also across departments. The HT seminars, the group leader talks, the neurologia which is a series of seminars on neurodynamics are just some of the initiatives that allows to really embrace all the different research that the institute investigates. One of the main lessons I learned at Human Technopole is the value of open discussion with peers. Scientists usually find themselves working in a highly specialized field and sometimes this may lead to losing the bigger picture and that's why confronting yourself with others especially those having a background different than yours greatly help in expanding your knowledge as well as your views. I really feel that interactions across groups and centers is really fostered and encouraged and sometimes you know brilliant projects arise for new ideas that are discussed spontaneously around the coffee with the many excellent scientists I am surrounded by here. There are many positive aspects in working at Human Technopole however the most exciting one is the unique position of the research institute in terms of resources and scientific makeup with many scientists coming from diverse backgrounds as well as renowned international research institute. This will allow Human Technopole to take all interesting and hard to solve scientific problems. One of the best opportunities HT has given me so far is the possibility to work on translational projects that might have an impact in patients life with advanced equipment and still learning from experts from multiple disciplines. To me Human Technopole means groundbreaking science innovation and open mindedness. My experience in HT is fun interesting and relevant. HT is becoming increasingly international multicultural and diverse and we really think we are in a place where a wonderful thing are going to happen and the potential is huge because of this.