Valeria Iannone

Valeria has a multidisciplinary background in nutrition and host physiology. Her research interests focused on investigating how diet shape the host via modulation of gut microbiota. She completed her PhD in Molecular Nutrition within a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN program (BestTreat consortium, No. 813781) at University of Eastern Finland at the Food and Health research group under the supervision of Prof. Marjukka Kolehmainen. During her PhD, she investigated metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and evaluated a novel microbiome-based therapeutic strategy in in vivo model. After her PhD, in the same research group she completed a postdoctoral project within the Cell2eat accademy project a (Research Council of Finland, nr. 339184) characterizing the protein quality of novel plant-based cell cultures in in vivo model and their impact on gut microbiota composition and function with in vitro colonic fermentation model.  In 2026, she was awarded a two-year internal competitive postdoctoral position at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland to develop an in vitro model for studying diet-host-microbiota interactions. Beyond my scientific expertise, I am actively engaged in scientific community leadership. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) Finland Chapter, which in the last year has enhanced her skills in communication, events coordination, and community engagement.