Istituto Superiore di Sanità

Study of the interactions between EBV infection and host immune system in the blood and in the brain tissue donated by People with MS

Verona, Italy

Posted on May 15, 2024  •  3 minutes  • 587 words

Contribution to the project

The main goal of the project is to provide a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and the host immune system in MS. ISS researchers will contribute by analysing EBV DNA load and viral and immune gene expression in the blood of People with MS and healthy donors, and will use their extensive neuropathological expertise to further investigate the possible link between EBV infection and immune activation in post-mortem brain tissue donated by People with MS.

Team Members

Caterina Veroni – ISS Unit Principal Investigator (PI)

Caterina Veroni is a senior researcher at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome. She graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2005 and completed her PhD in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the “Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore” of Rome in 2009. Since 2010, she has held a research position at ISS. In the last years, her research activity in the field of neuroscience has been focused on multiple sclerosis, with the aim of understanding the role of environmental factors in the development of the disease, with particular interest on the involvement of EBV in MS, identifying potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, and finding new therapies to promote myelin regeneration.

Barbara Serafini ISS Unit Co-PI

Barbara Serafini is senior researcher at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome. She earned her Master degree in Biological Science and her PhD at University “Sapienza” of Rome, Italy. She has carried out her research activity in the fields of neuroimmunology and neuropathology of Multiple Sclerosis since 1998, focusing on the immunopathogenetic mechanisms involved in the onset and progression of the disease. Her studies over the last years have been addressed to the viral aetiopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis, and the role of the immune response in the neurodegenerative processes. Her work has been part of multiple projects funded, among others, by the EU, the Ministry of Health, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association through its Foundation.

Barbara Rosicarelli – ISS Unit, technician

Barbara Rosicarelli gained a degree in Biological Sciences, specialising in Biotechnology, from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Since 2002 she has been employed as laboratory technician in the Neuropathology lab of the “Demyelinating and inflammatory diseases of the nervous system” Unit, in the Neuroscience department of ISS.

Lucia Benincasa – ISS Unit, fellowship student

Lucia Benincasa earned her Master degree Neurobiology at the University “Sapienza” in Rome, Italy, in 2023, carrying out her thesis on the EBV immune evasion mechanisms in multiple sclerosis brain in the Unit of Demyelinating and inflammatory diseases of the nervous systemt at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) in Rome. She is currently recipient of a fellowship awarded by the department of Neuroscience of the ISS, linked to a project aimed to analyse the neuropathological features of EBV infection in the MS brain tissues from donors with progressive disease.

Chiara Meloni – ISS Unit PhD student

Chiara Meloni completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the University of Ferrara, Italy, in September 2021 and her Master degree in Molecular and Medical Biotechnology at the University of Verona, Italy, in October 2023. She is a PhD student at the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and at the Department of Neuroscience of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, since November 2023 with a PhD project entitled “Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis: searching for new virus-related disease biomarkers and interactions with genetic predisposition”. Her laboratory skills mainly concern molecular biology techniques.