Maria Virginia Pascual is a Spanish-American pediatric rheumatologist.

Early life and education

Pascual was born in Madrid, Spain but grew up in

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

. She earned her undergraduate degree from

Centro de Estudios Universitarios The former Centro de Estudios Universitarios (CEU), currently called Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU, is a foundation for the development of education founded by the Catholic Propagandistic Association (ACdP). Out of the many academic instit ...

in 1975 and her medical degree from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

in 1981.

Career

Pascual 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 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vi ...

(UTSWMC). She remained at the institution as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

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. 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. 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 In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

of a study that identified molecular subgroups of patients and could improve the design of clinical trials for systemic lupus erythematosus patients. 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. 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." 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." 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. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Pascual was recognized with the Distinguished Basic/Translational Investigator Award from the

American College of Rheumatology The American College of Rheumatology (ACR; until 1985 called American Rheumatism Association) is an organization of and for physicians, health professionals, and scientists that advances rheumatology through programs of education, research, advocacy ...

. 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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pascual, Virginia Living people Physicians from Madrid Spanish women physicians Spanish pediatricians American rheumatologists Weill Medical College of Cornell University faculty University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center faculty Year of birth missing (living people)