During my Ph.D. I studied endothelial cell heterogeneity at the LMU in Munich with Professor Oliver Soehnlein in the Institute of Professor Christian Weber. At the moment I am a Post-doc in the group of Dr. Emiel van de Vorst at the RWTH Aachen, further exploring endothelial cells. However, during this conference, I will present our data on a study on T cells and their involvement in atherosclerotic plaque progression and development in humans and mice, respectively.

Dr. Chiara Macchi obtained her degree in Pharmacy at University of Milan (UniMi) in 2012. She attended the Doctoral School in Experimental Medicine and Medical Biotechnologies at UniMi, and in 2018 she defended her thesis entitled: Development and pathophysiological characterization of a novel in vivo model of metabolic syndrome driven by iron overload and associated to insulin resistance and reproductive impairment. She spent 14 months at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, in the laboratory of Prof. Patti, where her research focus was to understand the mechanisms by which reversal of hyperglycemia alters mitochondrial oxidative capacity and metabolic flux in metabolic tissues. In 2018, dr. Macchi was the recipient of the 3-months “International Atherosclerosis Society Visiting Fellowship Awards” thanks to which she had the opportunity to spend 6 months in the laboratory of prof. Culmsee, at the University of Marburg, dedicating her research activity to the study of mitochondrial functionality in the context of dysmetabolic phenotype. Since 2022, dr. Macchi holds the position of Assistant Professor at UniMi, under the supervision of Proff. Corsini and Ruscica. Her research focus is the identification of non-classic biomarkers of cardiovascular risk, looking at extracellular vesicles as mediators of air pollution’s effects on cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Joëlle Magné is an enthusiastic scientist at the Immunology Department of St Jude Children’s research hospital, who has a long-standing expertise in delineating early mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. She started her scientific journey in Paris at the Physiology of Nutrition and Eating Behavior Unit at AgroParistech, in Professors Huneau and Mariotti’s team, where she demonstrated the benefits of rapeseed protein, an emergent protein rich in cysteine and in arginine, in modulating postprandial endothelial dysfunction. In Professor Ewa Ehrenborg’s team, at the Cardiovascular Research Unit at Karolinska Institute, while examining by which pathways a missense polymorphism in perilipin2 possesses protective properties on plasma TG and atherosclerotic plaque progression, Dr Magné uncovered a specific role of autophagy in primary human macrophages foam cell formation. Since then, Dr Magné’s research focuses on identifying tissues/cell types and members of the autophagy pathways relevant for the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Under the mentorship of Professor Dr. Douglas Green, an international leader in research on non-canonical functions of autopagy proteins and member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, she’s exploring the role LC3-associated endocytosis, a novel form of non-canonical autophagy, in the initiation of endothelial dysfunction, cardiac failure, and atherosclerosis.

Ziad Mallat received his MD and qualification in Cardiovascular Diseases from University of Pierre et Marie Curie in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Vascular Biology, Thrombosis and Haemostasis from University of Paris-Diderot in 1999. He joined INSERM, Paris in 1998 as Assistant Research Professor, became Associate Professor in 2002 and Research Professor in 2007. He is currently the British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK, and has been elected fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK. He is Co-Editor of Atherosclerosis, Consulting Editor for Cardiovascular Research, and serves on the Editorial Board of Circulation Research, and JCI Insight. His work aims to understand the role of the immune system in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. Mallat was the first to identify a major atheroprotective role of regulatory T cells and associated anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-10 and TGF-. More recently, he identified selective pathogenic and protective roles for defined B cell and innate lymphoid cell subsets in atherosclerosis and cardiac remodelling following ischemic injury. His basic science research is complemented by proof-of-concept clinical trials in patients with coronary artery disease.

Christos S. Mantzoros, MD, DSc, PhD h.c. mult. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has performed groundbreaking research in several areas of metabolism. Dr. Mantzoros has published more than 1000 scientific papers and his corpus has received 151,000 citations with an H-index of 151. He serves as a Division Chief at Harvard, he has developed clinical programs and has presented at national and international meetings, has received enormous recognition in the field and currently edits the journal Metabolism (2-year impact factor 13.93, Cite Score 20.5). An outstanding clinician and prolific clinical investigator, Dr. Mantzoros has mentored a large number of people who have gone on to successful careers in academia, industry and clinical medicine. He has applied for approximately 20 patents and has received several while others are still pending. For his research discoveries and public health service, Dr. Mantzoros has received four honorary PhDs, several universities worldwide have awarded Dr. Mantzoros honorary professorships and visiting professorships, he is a member of ASCI and other learned societies and has received many top awards nationally and internationally.