Studies on Arthritis and Joint Disorders

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María José Alcaraz, Ph.D., is a full Professor in Pharmacology  at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Valencia, Spain, and former Head of this Department. After completing her Ph.D. at the University of Valencia with Extraordinary Award, she undertook postdoctoral research funded by the Spanish Ministery of Education at the Department of Pharmacology, King's Col. London (1983-1984).  She also worked as a visiting researcher at the Unité 348 INSERM, Paris (1998) and received  the Dr. Esteve Foundation Award to the best publication in pharmacology and Almirall Award to the best project in pharmacology.  In addition to act as editor or referee for several international journals and expert for scientific projects evaluation in different countries and international organizations,  she has played an active role in international cooperation with Latin America. Maria José Alcaraz is the head of the "Pharmacology of Inflammation" group, Department of Pharmacology, University of Valencia, Spain, which focuses on the pathogenesis of the inflammatory process, oxidative stress regulation and the development of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of joint diseases mainly rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.  Dr. Oreste Gualillo obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at the Department of Experimental Pharmacology of the University "Federico II", Naples (Italy). He received training in molecular endocrinology under Prof. Paul A. Kelly at the Necker School of Medicine, Paris. In 1998 he moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology of the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, where he worked as a Marie Curie postdoctoral research fellow. In 2001 he set up his own research group at the Santiago University Clinical Hospital. He is currently a Class "A" Stable researcher with the SERGAS (Servizo Galegode Saude) and Carlos III Health Institute of the Spanish Ministry of Health, heading the NEIRID (NeuroEndocrine Interactions in Rheumatology and Inflammatory Diseases) research laboratory of the Santiago University Clinical Hospital at the IDIS (Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria) of Santiago de Compostela. He has published over 80 papers and in the last years his research was focussed on defining the multifaceted role of adipokines in chondrocyte pathophysiology. Olga Sánchez-Pernaute, MD, PhD, is a senior rheumatologist in the Jimenez Diaz Foundation University Hospital and assistant Prof at the Autonoma University School of Medicine in Madrid. She has a dilated background in translational research, focused on the study of innate mechanisms of disease associated to autoimmune rheumatic conditions. Of note are her early contributions to the field of inflammatory mediators in experimental models of arthritis, and the pioneer work on the role of fibrin in the progression of synovitis. She was invited for a one-year fellowship at the Laboratory of Experimental Rheumatology of Zürich University, where she developed her research interest in epigenetics. In the last few years she has created a Multidisciplinary Unit for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases that she currently directs at her Institution.