Mercoledì 12 Febbraio 2025, ore 13
Edificio Asclepio U8-Aula 7
Host: Prof.ssa Maria Foti
► Diretta webex
What can blood tell us about a neurological disorder? Do biological correlates exist for clinical definitions in neurology? What are the underlying gene-regulatory networks and are they implicated in disease expression? How can artificial intelligence assist in predicting disease diagnosis and courses? These are the topics we are going to touch with this seminar. In fact, the objective of our research is to obtain information on molecular and cellular biomarkers and regulatory networks associated with complex neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
To this end, we use blood as information source and transcriptomics as tool for getting high-throughput pathology-related data. Generation and application of advanced bioinformatics and machine learning pipelines may highlight disease course-specific immunological alterations, identify transcription factor networks controlling experimental neuroinflammation and predict disease risk.
Cinthia Farina
Dr. Cinthia Farina, a PhD and neuroimmunologist, is Head of the Immunobiology of Neurological Disorders Unit at the Institute of Experimental Neurology at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Her research activity has provided original advancement on the immunological monitoring of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment, the stratification of clinical MS stages via blood transcriptomics, the comprehension of glia-neuron interactions in MS lesions and the identification of novel therapeutic targets. She has received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award for Multiple Sclerosis Research by the European Charcot Foundation.
Dr. Farina has been an elected member of the scientific advisory boards of the Italian Association of Neuroimmunology and the International Society of Neuroimmunology, is a selected member of the Scientific Board of the UK Multiple Sclerosis Society and serves as reviewer for several granting agencies including European Research Council, UK Medical Research Council, Agence Nationale de la recherché, DFG Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, Foundation ARSEP. In addition to her scientific activity in neuroimmunology, she coordinates the GEDI (Gender and Diversity Inclusion) Team within her institution, whose task is to promote gender balance in the organization and gender medicine in clinical and research practices. Cinthia Farina has contributed to the drafting of the National Plan for Gender Medicine and collaborates with the Ministry for Health and the National Observatory for Gender Medicine on issues related to gender pharmacology.