Antonio Molinaro
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
MD, PhD
I am a medical doctor working part time in the hospital as hepatologist and in the lab as a researcher. I have always been interested in understanding the deep molecular mechanism underneath the clinical manifestation of a certain disease.
My research is focused on investigating the role of microbiota produced metabolites on metabolic diseases, e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. My goal is to go beyond the association of certain metabolite with a certain disease and to demonstrate its potential causative role. In the last years I have been focusing on understating the detrimental effect of imidazole propionate, a metabolite derived from dietary histidine, on metabolic diseases. We were able to show that imidazole propionate contributes to the insulin resistance in subjects with type 2 diabetes [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.055]. Now we are expanding our knowledge on the role of imidazole propionate on other metabolic diseases.
Moreover, I am also active in a several sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials focused on the development of new treatment options for metabolic and liver diseases.