webinar
Technology
Sponsored by Novartis

Opening a window of opportunity: Reframing treatment strategies to prevent damage from chronic inflammation

12 Apr 2023
9:30 AM ET
Speakers:Peter Nigrovic, M.D.,Francesco Di Virgilio, M.D.,Giuseppe Matarese M.D., Ph.D.
Moderator:Jackie Oberst, Ph.D.

Green background image of a larger cell on left of image with two smaller cells to the center and right

Apr

2023

9:30

Peter Nigrovic, M.D.Speaker

Francesco Di Virgilio, M.D.Speaker

Giuseppe Matarese M.D., Ph.D.Speaker

Jackie Oberst, Ph.D.Moderator

This webinar is brought to you by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office.

Chronic inflammation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Clinicians are becoming increasingly aware that health outcomes depend not only on the choice of treatment, but also on the timing of treatment with respect to the disease trajectory. Evidence is mounting that treating inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, within a particular timeframe can offer significant benefits. This concept, referred to as the “window of opportunity,” may have far-reaching applications in the treatment of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases and even cancer. In this webinar, experts will discuss the basic mechanisms that create the window of opportunity as well as what the research says about how to apply this concept in a clinical setting.

During this webinar the speakers will:

Describe the molecular mechanisms that govern the effectiveness of treatments that prevent damage from autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases
Offer insights into how researchers can incorporate the “window of opportunity” concept into the design of intervention studies
Provide information clinicians can apply to their treatment strategies
Answer your questions during the live broadcast.

This webinar will last for approximately 60 minutes.

SPEAKER BIOS

Peter Nigrovic, M.D.

Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Dr. Nigrovic is chief of the Division of Immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. An adult and pediatric rheumatologist, he also directs the Center for Adults with Pediatric Rheumatic Illness (CAPRI) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His laboratory studies basic mechanisms of inflammation (www.nigroviclab.net) and has contributed to the understanding of innate immune function. His work on systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis helped to situate this disease at the interface between autoinflammation and autoimmunity. His group defined a new connection between sex and immunity and developed novel experimental tools to identify causal noncoding genetic variants that bridge the gap between genome-wide association studies and mechanism in polygenic diseases. He leads the U.S. National Institutes of Health–funded Joint Biology Consortium arthritis research infrastructure (www.jbcwebportal.org), serves on the editorial board of Arthritis & Rheumatology and in the research leadership of the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA), and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Francesco Di Virgilio, M.D.

University of Ferrara
Ferrara, Italy

Dr. Di Virgilio is professor of clinical pathology at the University of Ferrara, Italy, former dean of education in the medical school, and head of the research program in inflammation and autoimmunity at Ferrara University Hospital. He is also director of the Postgraduate School in Clinical Pathology and of the Ph.D. Program in Molecular Medicine. He received his medical degree at the University of Padova, worked at University College London as a research assistant, and as a visiting fellow in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University in New York, before joining the University of Padova as an associate professor of molecular pathology. In 1992, he moved to the University of Ferrara as professor of general pathology. Dr. Di Virgilio was chairman of the Center of Excellence for the Study of Inflammation (2001–2010) and deputy rector for Research and Technology Transfer of the University of Ferrara (2011–2015). He has published over 300 scientific papers, is editor-in-chief of Current Opinion in Pharmacology, member of the committee for receptor nomenclature of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR), a member of the Cell Biology Section of the Faculty of 1000, and an academic member of the European Academy of Tumor Immunology. His corporate experience includes sitting on the scientific advisory board of Duska Therapeutics Inc., Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG, and Biosceptre Ltd.

Giuseppe Matarese M.D., Ph.D.

Università di Napoli Federico II
Napoli, Italy

Dr. Matarese is Professor of Immunology and leads the Treg Cell Lab at Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Napoli “Federico II,” Napoli, Italy. More than 25 years ago, he was among the first to open a novel area of investigation linking metabolism with immune responses, currently known as “immunometabolism.” Indeed, in 1998 Matarese and coworkers showed for the first time that leptin, the adipocyte-derived hormone that inhibits food intake and increases basal metabolism, can influence T helper 1 (Th1) immune responses. For over two decades, he has conducted studies on how adipose tissue and systemic metabolism influence autoimmune disease susceptibility, and has suggested mild caloric restriction to halt inflammation in autoimmune responses particularly in the context of multiple sclerosis. Further, his lab has defined the role of glycolysis in controlling regulatory T cell proliferation and expansion in normal and autoimmune conditions. His research is currently focused on determining how “metabolic overwork”—observed in overweight/obese subjects—influences autoimmune and infectious disease susceptibility in more affluent countries.

MODERATOR BIO

Jackie Oberst, Ph.D.

Science/AAAS
Washington, DC

Dr. Oberst did her undergraduate training at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her Ph.D. in Tumor Biology at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. She combined her interests in science and writing by pursuing an M.A. in Journalism from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Oberst joined Science/AAAS in 2016 as the Assistant Editor for Custom Publishing. Before then she worked at Nature magazine, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Endocrine Society, and the National Institutes of Mental Health.

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