Understanding the Pandemic

Shampa Chatterjee is Associate Professor at the Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicinein Philadelphia. Trained in India, Germany and the US, her current research is on inflammation-immune signaling with a focus on the vascular system. Her lab studies the role of redox signals in the onset and amplification of inflammation and immune responses. Toward this, recent work from her group showed that the systemic cytokine storm associated with COVID-19 activates an inflammation cascade in the vascular system that can potentially lead to vascular dysfunction. Research in her lab is funded by extramural research funding from the NIH and corporate sources. Dr. Chatterjee serves on the Editorial Board of several journals in the field of pulmonary physiology. She has published more than 100 papers in peer reviewed journals and edited two books on Endothelial Signaling, and on Inflammation and Immune responses. Dr. Chatterjee has received numerous awards such as the Caroline Tum Suden young Investigator Award, and the Hermann Rahn award for Excellence if Pulmonary Physiology. The topics addressed in this book are central to her research where she tries unraveling the balance between the onset of inflammation in host protection and resolution of inflammation in host injury.

Amaro Nunes Duarte Neto is an infectious diseases physician and pathologist, and Associate Professor at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMUSP). After graduating in medicine from the Universidade de Pernambuco in 1999, he moved to São Paulo, in the south-east of Brazil, to complete a fellowship in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP from 2000 to 2004. He also worked in the Intensive Care and Emergency Department at the University of São Paulo. After obtaining his PhD. in the field of leptospirosis pathology, he studied anatomical pathology and completed residency at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Centre in São Paulo from 2011-2014. Since then, he has been involved in autopsy and infectious disease pathology, with numerous publications on the pathology of COVID-19, yellow fever, AIDS, tuberculosis, and fungal infections. He is currently leading a project on preparedness in anatomical pathology for rapid response to future epidemics in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Marco Cascella, MD, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Intensive Care, and Pain Medicine at the University of Salerno. He graduated with honors in Medicine and Surgery in 1997 from the University “Vanvitelli” of Naples and later pursued postgraduate studies in anesthesia and intensive care in 2001. Prof. Cascella is actively engaged in research, with a particular focus on automatic pain assessment using AI techniques. He serves as an editorial board member for several medical journals and has delivered lectures at numerous conferences and conventions. With an extensive academic background, he has authored approximately 250 scientific publications, books, book chapters, etc., covering various medical domains ranging from anesthesia, pain treatment, and oncology to palliative care. Prof. Cascella plays a leadership role and actively participates in various research projects, showcasing his commitment to advancing medical knowledge and technology.

Dr. Sonia Villapol earned her bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Santiago of Compostela (Spain) in 2003. She furthered her academic journey by obtaining her master's degree and PhD in Neuroscience from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) in 2007. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Villapol embarked on a fruitful research career. She served as a postdoctoral fellow at CNRS in the University Pierre and Marie Curie VI and at INSERM in Paris, France from 2007 to 2010. Subsequently, she continued her postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, and Uniformed Services University (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland from 2010 to 2014. In May 2014, Dr. Villapol joined the Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she held the position of Research Assistant Professor. Then, in July 2018, she transitioned to the Center for Neuroregeneration at Houston Methodist Research Institute, assuming the role of Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery. Dr. Villapol's academic and research achievements include securing extramural research funding as a Principal Investigator from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DoD), and several private foundations. Additionally, she plays a role as a standing member of the Molecular Neurogenetics NIH Study Section (MNG) and other Institutes from NIH and DoD agencies. To date, Dr. Villapol have authored over 70 publications in esteemed peer-reviewed journals, predominantly focusing on the neuroinflammatory processes across different animal models. Her current research explores the mechanisms that modulate neurodegeneration and inflammation, the intricacies of the brain-gut axis, the impact of gastrointestinal changes and gut microbiome changes on Long COVID-19, and the development of gender-specific strategies for drug delivery aimed at neuro-restoration

Dr. Anand Viswanathan is the Director of Telestroke Services at Partners Healthcare and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is a staff neurologist in the Stroke Service and in the Memory Disorders Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Viswanathan is an executive member of the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Research Center (MADRC). His research program at the J. Philip Kistler Stroke Research Center focuses on the contribution of stroke and vascular risk factors to dementia. His group has engaged in numerous multidisciplinary interactions and collaborations, including with economists, artists, and writers, in order to further understanding of mechanisms of disease and foster humanism in medicine.