Valentina Discepolo
Pediatrician and driven physician scientist with a major interest in gastrointestinal, immune mediated and food-induced disorders, that I investigate from both a clinical and a pathogenetic prospective in an academic setting. Interested in implementing whole-person care and personalized medicine, I am also passionate about scientific dissemination, education and public health-oriented projects.
Currently I am Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Department of Translational Medical Sciences (DISMET), University of Naples Federico II, Italy and a Principal Investigator at European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food Induced Diseases (ELFID).
A primary focus of my research team is to understand how environmental triggers, including infectious agents that activate innate immune responses, and food antigens, might contribute to elicit autoimmune diseases. In particular, thanks to funding from them Italian Ministry of Research and the Italian Celiac Association we are investigating the role of dietary metabolic load in the natural history of celiac disease. In addition, thanks to funding from the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition we will try to dissect the role of early viral infections as a trigger for celiac disease development in high-genetic-risk infants. In collaboration with a computational team, we are using duodenal bulk transcriptomics to unveil the heterogeneity among celiac patients, highlighting sex, age, and degree of tissue damage driven signatures.
These projects will hopefully contribute to better understand the disease natural history and delineate new personalized preventive and therapeutic approaches for celiac patients.
During the past years, my lab has also focused on the role of viral infections as triggers for inflammatory and autoimmune responses and the common pathogenic mechanisms between celiac and other autoimmune diseases such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis and type 1 diabetes.
Abstracts this author is presenting: