Gut Microbiome, Microbial Metabolites and Cardiometabolic Risk

Massimo Federici is currently Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” Medical School and Director of the Center for Atherosclerosis at the Tor Vergata Medical School hospital. He trained in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Rome (1999) and at the Joslin Diabetes Center (1997). Since 1999, he is actively working in both clinical and molecular research. His laboratory is focused on mechanisms causing diabetes and atherosclerosis, including the effect of gut microbiota on both diseases. He is a member of the EU-funded Florinash Consortium which is studying how the gut microbiome influences the onset and progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), Type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis in people living with obesity.

Rossella Menghini is currently Associate Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at the Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata. After a Chemistry Bachelor Degree (1996), she has been Research Fellow at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology of the “Sapienza” University of Rome, where she obtained a Board Certification in Chemical Science. She has been Visiting Scientist at the Department of Cellular Microbiology and Immunology of the Vienna Biocentrum, Austria. In 2003, she obtained the Ph.D. degree in Experimental Physiopathology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where from 2003 to 2007 she worked as Postdoctoral Researcher at the Molecular Medicine Laboratory Department of Internal Medicine. The research carried out in recent years has focused on the study of the mechanisms involved in metabolic and cardiovascular pathologies, with particular emphasis to the identification of molecular mediators and biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis, and obesity-induced adipose tissue inflammation.