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.
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.