Maria Virginia Pascual is a Spanish-American pediatric rheumatologist.
Virginia Pascual | |
|---|---|
| Born | Madrid, Spain |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BSc, 1975, Centro de Estudios Universitarios MD, 1981, Complutense University of Madrid |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
Early life and education
editPascual was born in Madrid, Spain but grew up in Ceuta. She earned her undergraduate degree from Centro de Estudios Universitarios in 1975 and her medical degree from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1981.[1]
Career
editPascual moved to the United States in 1987 to complete her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWMC).[1] She remained at the institution as an associate professor of pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Rheumatology Division until 2004. Eventually she became investigator at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research. In 2001, her research team linked abnormal secretion of alpha interferon to the malfunctioning immune systems of young patients with lupus.[2] In 2005 she described a link between Interleukin 1 and Systemic onset Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (sJIA) pathogenesis together with the first pilot trial results showing clinical efficacy of blocking this cytokine in sJIA patients.[3]
As a pediatric rheumatologist, Pascual investigated pediatric inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with the goal of translating laboratory findings into therapeutic targets and useful biomarkers. In March 2016, she served as the principal investigator of a study that identified molecular subgroups of patients and could improve the design of clinical trials for systemic lupus erythematosus patients.[4][5] The following year, she was appointed the founding Gale and Ira Drukier Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.[6] Pascual was also the recipient of the 2017 Lupus Insight Prize from the Lupus Research Alliance in recognition of her "major, novel insight and/or discovery with the promise of changing thinking about lupus as well as a high likelihood of generating further advances in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease."[7]
In August 2018, Pascual was inducted into the Association of American Physicians as a "physician-scientists who has demonstrated excellence in the pursuit of medical knowledge and in the advancement of basic and clinical science discoveries and their application to clinical medicine."[8] A few months later, her research team released a study suggesting that a previously unknown type of T lymphocyte causes the immune system to attack healthy tissues and organs and leads to chronic inflammation.[9]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pascual was recognized with the Distinguished Basic/Translational Investigator Award from the American College of Rheumatology.[10] She also received a grant supplement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the differences in immune responses in children infected with SARS-CoV-2.[11]
References
edit- ^ a b Pascual, Virginia; Clifford Roberts, William (January 2008). "Virginia Pascual, MD: a conversation with the editor". Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. 21 (1): 57–67. doi:10.1080/08998280.2008.11928360. PMC 2190553. PMID 18209757.
- ^ "Lupus Study Finds Abnormal Alpha-Interferon Secretion May Lead To Better Gene Therapies For Immune-System Disease". sciencedaily.com. November 26, 2001. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ Pascual, Virginia; Allantaz, Florence; Arce, Edsel; Punaro, Marilynn; Banchereau, Jacques (2005-05-02). "Role of interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the pathogenesis of systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis and clinical response to IL-1 blockade". The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 201 (9): 1479–1486. doi:10.1084/jem.20050473. ISSN 1540-9538. PMC 2213182. PMID 15851489.
- ^ Banchereau, Romain; Hong, Seunghee; Cantarel, Brandi; Baldwin, Nicole; Baisch, Jeanine; Edens, Michelle; Cepika, Alma-Martina; Acs, Peter; Turner, Jacob; Anguiano, Esperanza; Vinod, Parvathi; Khan, Shaheen; Obermoser, Gerlinde; Blankenship, Derek; Wakeland, Edward; Nassi, Lorien; Gotte, Alisa; Punaro, Marilynn; Liu, Yong-Jun; Banchereau, Jacques; Rossello-Urgell, Jose; Wright, Tracey; Pascual, Virginia (March 31, 2016). "Personalized Immunomonitoring Uncovers Molecular Networks That Stratify Lupus Patients". Cell. 165 (3): 551–565. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2016.03.008. PMC 5426482. PMID 27040498.
- ^ "Landmark study may pave way for personalized treatment of Lupus, other complex autoimmune diseases". sciencedaily.com. Science Daily. March 31, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Dr. Virginia Pascual Named Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children's Health". weill.cornell.edu. March 3, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "2017 Lupus Insight Prize Presented to Dr. Virginia Pascual". lupusresearch.org. 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Three Weill Cornell Medicine Physician-Scientists Inducted into Association of American Physicians". news.weill.cornell.edu. August 30, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "New Clue to How Lupus Arises". news.weill.cornell.edu. December 18, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "American College of Rheumatology announces 2020 award recipients". eurekalert.org. Eurekalert. November 6, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Dr. Virginia Pascual Leads Grant to Study Immune Responses in Children with COVID-19 and Receives Prestigious ACR Award". news.weill.cornell.edu. November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
External links
edit- Virginia Pascual publications indexed by Google Scholar