Paola Cavalcante (eng)

Paola Cavalcante

Presentazione:

BIOLOGIST
SC Neurologia 4 - Neuroimmunologia e Malattie Neuromuscolari
(italian version)

I obtained the Master degree in Biological Sciences, summa cum laude, in 2002 at the University of Calabria (Cosenza, Italy) - Cell Biology Department, Laboratory of Genetics - where in 2006 I got the PhD degree in Molecular Bio-pathology. During the PhD appointment, I developed competences in genetics, molecular and cellular biology, and immunology.

Research activity

I joined the UOC Neurologia 4 in 2006 as post-doc researcher. I have always been actively involved in national and international projects on neuromuscular diseases, particularly myasthenia gravis (MG). My research activity aims at understanding the immunological alterations underlying these disorders, for the development of more efficient and innovative treatments. Findings from my studies allowed to disclose a close link between innate immunity and autoimmunity in MG, revealing the contribution of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and pathogen (e.g. Epstein-Barr virus) infections to the intra-thymic pathogenesis of the disease.

In 2013, I was awarded a Grant of the Italian Ministry of Health for Young Researcher, and started to coordinate and work on a project focused on the role of microRNAs as pathogenic factors implicated in MG and potential targets of RNA-based advanced therapies to achieve immunomodulation. My activity is also dedicated to translational pharmacogemomic/miRNomic studies aimed at the identification of predictive and on-treatment monitoring biomarkers for MG. Since 2019 I am Health Research at the same UOC, where I coordinate a group of junior and senior fellowships working on MG and immune-mediated neurological disorders to improve therapeutic strategies and promote personalised medicine implementation in clinical practice.

Topics of interest