Paola Cavalcante obtained her Master’s degree in Biological
Sciences, summa cum laude, in 2002 at the Laboratory of Genetics, Cell Biology
Department, University of Calabria (Cosenza, Italy) where in 2006 she got her
Ph.D. in Molecular Bio-pathology. She joined the UOC Neurologia 4 in 2006 as a post-doc
researcher. She has always been actively involved in national and international
projects on neuromuscular diseases, particularly myasthenia gravis (MG). Her
research activity aims at understanding the immunological alterations
underlying these disorders, for the development of more efficient and
innovative treatments. Findings from her studies allowed her 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, she
was awarded a Grant from the Italian Ministry of Health for a 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. Since 2019 she has
been in Health Research at the same UOC, where she coordinates a group of
junior and senior fellowships working on MG and immune-mediated neurological
disorders to improve therapeutic strategies and promote personalized medicine
implementation in clinical practice.
Maria Foti graduated in Milan in 1992 and obtained her PhD
in Biotechnology in 1996 at the University of Milan. In 1997 she was a visiting
researcher at the “Human Genome Sciences” institute in Rockville, USA. From
1999-2003 she was appointed as a researcher at the R&D Department of the
pharmaceutical company Bayer/Axxam in Milan where she focused on early-stage
target discovery in the field of immunology and the discovery of a novel gene
reporter system. In 2004 she became an assistant professor at the University of
Milano-Bicocca. She has worked for several years in the field of molecular
immunology and cell biology of Dendritic Cells. She studied the molecular
events associated with Dendritic cell early responses, suggesting the role of
Dendritic Cells as the key players in innate immune responses. She also
developed a novel molecular assay that can be used as quality control in
DC-based therapies. Her research activity has been dedicated to the
understanding of the molecular pathways regulating mainly myeloid cells
(Dendritic Cells (DCs), Monocytes, and Neutrophils) Biology in health and
disease. Her lab has a strong focus on cells of innate immunity including the
role of APC in autoimmunity and their regulation in tissue and organ
homeostasis. From 2017 she is also the scientific director of the Transcriptome
Facility at the University of Milano-Bicocca.
