ISSCD | B4CeD Committee

Dr Renata Auricchio is associate professor at University Federico II of Naples, Italy, Director of Inter-Universitary Center “European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food Induced Disease (ELFID)”, at the same University and Head of Regional Celiac Disease Center for children. She has been involved for many years in the study of celiac disease in childhood. In particular, she was committed to clinical studies of prevention of celiac disease and identification of risk factors (environmental, genetics and immunological) involved in the early phases of the disease and collecting a large cohorts of patients in different phases of the disease (potential celiac disease).

Her research group has investigated also in depth the biological properties of gliadin peptides and their possible role in the activation of innate immunity. She has active roles of responsibility in the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) as secretary of the special interest group of Celiac Disease and as Deputy in Chief Editor of JPGN reports.

Dr Eivind Ness-Jensen is associate professor at HUNT Research Centre, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and consultant and specialist in gastroenterology at Levanger Hospital, Nord-Trøndelag Hospital Trust, Norway. He is the principal investigator of the HUNT Coeliac Study, a population-based cohort study performed in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway, were all adult participants were screened for celiac disease by serology and invited to a clinical assessment including upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with duodenal biopsies. His research group is working on the diagnosis of celiac disease and the consequence of celiac disease in adults, in addition to genetic and environmental risk factors of the disease based on data and biological materiel collected through the HUNT studies.

Professor Steffen Husby is a paediatric gastroenterologist, his present position is Professor of Pediatrics at University of Southern Denmark. He has supervised 14 PhD students and during the last decades performed research on inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, particularly in celiac disease including epidemiology, clinical studies and pathophysiological investigations. His team has performed registry-based studies on the prevalence of paediatric celiac disease in Denmark, utilizing national databases and cohorts.

A main interest of Professor Husby is risk factors for the development of celiac disease, and his work in the large Danish and Norwegian cohorts has shown that the use of antibiotics in the first years of life increased the risk of subsequent celiac disease. He has headed the development of new evidence-based guidelines from the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) for the diagnosis of celiac disease (2012, 2020), which introduced the no-biopsy diagnostic approach.

Professor of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Director of the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease, USA. Dr Liu is a pediatric gastroenterologist and director of the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease and part of NASPGHAN’s Celiac Disease special interest group. He is one of the founding members of the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease and inaugural council member. His specific interest has been in celiac disease serology, mass screening and celiac disease epidemiology, particularly as it relates to type 1 diabetes. He is seeking to help expand collaboration in pediatric celiac disease in the US to other countries internationally through their collaborative groups within NASPGHAN and also through RAISE-CD.

Maureen Leonard, MD, MMSc, serves as the Director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at Mass General for Children (MGfC). Dr Leonard holds a master’s degree in clinical and translational investigation from HMS. She is an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She is also Associate Director, for the Boston Area Nutrition Obesity Research Center Genomics and Cell Biology Core. In her clinical work, she treats adult and pediatric patients with celiac disease.
As a physician scientist, Dr Leonard’s research is focused on identify microbial and immunologic signatures that may predict the celiac disease onset in an international prospective cohort of infants at risk for celiac disease through the Celiac Disease;
Genomic, Environment, Microbiome and Metabolomic (CDGEMM) Study. She also works to identify environmental factors that influence celiac disease onset; biomarkers that can predict intestinal healing, and working with industry collaborators to create and perform clinical trials aimed at treating celiac disease. Dr Leonard has served as the co-Chair of the NASPGHAN Celiac Special Interest group (2023-2026) and currently serves as Chair Elect for the SSCD.

Ainara Castellanos-Rubio is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. Her research focuses on functional genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying disease, with a particular emphasis on RNA-regulated processes. Her work aims to characterize alterations in RNA biology that precede disease onset and to translate these findings into novel therapeutic strategies. She is a board member of the Spanish Celiac Disease Society and chair of its Basic Science Group. 

Rachele Ciccocioppo is Full Professor of Gastroenterology and Head of the School of Specialization in Digestive Disease at the University Gabriele d’Annunzio of Chieti – Pescara (Italy), and Head of the Gastroenterology and Endoscopic Unit of the Ospedale Clinicizzato SS. Annunziata of Chieti (Italy).

Since the beginning of her career, she has been involved in both clinical management of patients suffering from chronic enteropathies and scientific research in the field of mucosal immunology. Specifically, she focused her attention on mechanisms of villous atrophy and on mesenchymal stem cells with a view on their therapeutic application. In this regard, she was appointed as Chief Scientific Officer of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy. Now, she is honoured to serve the International Society for the Study of Coeliac Disease and to be part of this exciting network.