Sandra Misale Is the 2026 “Prima Donna”: In Montalcino, Research Meets the Dreams of Young People
The scientist, who is studying new therapies to combat the most aggressive forms of cancer, received the Casato Prime Donne Award. Two journalists and thirteen young talents were also honored.
From Palmi to Baltimore, via Turin, Boston, and New York: Sandra Misale’s journey shows just how far curiosity and determination can take you.
A young Italian scientist at the forefront of developing a drug that doubles survival rates. “For thirty years, they kept repeating the same phrase to us: ‘It can’t be done.’ But it turns out it can.”
Originally from Calabria, she has dedicated her career to a target that for decades was considered impossible to treat with medication.
Sandra Misale has made her way to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, a legendary institution for scientists.
She has a lab named after her: the Misale Lab. For years, she has been studying how to combat mutations in the #KRAS gene, a gene involved in the development of the most aggressive cancers: pancreatic, lung, colon, and many hematological cancers. It is described as the beating heart of cancer.
She is the youngest and only Italian member of this international group working to combat this mutation from all over the world, and she presented the results of the molecule at the conference, visibly moved by the findings, which showed that a new experimental therapy against KRAS led to increased survival in patients with pancreatic cancer.
For Misale, this milestone is the result of the collaborative work of many researchers, but it is also a starting point for new questions and new studies.
On September 19, at the Teatro degli Astrusi in Montalcino, she received the title of Prima Donna 2026 at the 25th edition of the Casato Prime Donne Award.
This year’s theme, “The Dream Is/Is Reality”, permeated the ceremony and the works of the young people involved. Misale addressed them in particular, encouraging them to pursue their passions even when the path ahead seems difficult.
In the dedication for the artistic journey through the vineyards of Casato Prime Donne, she shared a reflection that sums up her path: “Seek out what sparks your curiosity. Find it. Cherish the joy that comes from nurturing it, day after day. That is how what seems impossible becomes attainable.”
Accompanying her words will be Escamotage, a work by Taisiia Makohon. Born in Kyiv in 2006 and having arrived in Italy after the war began, the young artist now lives in San Quirico d’Orcia and studies at the Duccio di Buoninsegna Art High School in Siena.
In her painting, inspired by Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, the dream becomes a refuge in the face of losing one’s home and being separated from loved ones. It is a different vision from that expressed by the scientist: for Misale, the dream is a possibility to be built; in Makohon’s work, it is also a space in which to find shelter.
“The 25th edition of the Casato Prime Donne Award is an important milestone,” stated Donatella Cinelli Colombini, president of the jury, highlighting the project’s commitment to advancing the role of women, the local community, and future generations.
The ceremony also honored Francesca Ciancio and Andrea Cuomo for their journalistic work dedicated to Montalcino, its territory, and its wines. Alongside them, the Award recognized thirteen young talents in the fields of art, jewelry making, music, education, and pastry arts.
Among the works presented, four pieces of jewelry created by artists from LAO—Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School in Florence—interpret the relationship between dream and reality through desire, fragility, and disillusionment. The program also involved students from schools in Montalcino, three musicians from the Chigiana-Mozarteum Baroque Program, and pastry chef Alessandra Pinto from the Tessieri School of Advanced Training. Her cake, From Origins to Dreams, traces—through ingredients and shapes—the stages of Sandra Misale’s life, from Southern Italy to Turin and on to New York.
Established in 1999, the Casato Prime Donne Award selects each year a figure capable of inspiring progress toward equality. In this edition, Sandra Misale’s story intertwines with those of the young award recipients: diverse experiences that, each in its own way, demonstrate what it means to try to give shape to a dream.
