Daria Piacentino is a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow in the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology (CPN), a joint laboratory of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (P.I.: Dr. Lorenzo Leggio). As a 2019 CCB Fellow, Daria will test the novel hypothesis that gut microbiome bidirectionally influences brain activity, more specifically alcohol drinking behavior. A translational approach is taken in that human-to-rodent microbiota transplantation will be performed. Her long-term goal is to identify new targets for the treatment of alcohol use disorders.
Daria received both her M.D. and Ph.D. in Clinical Experimental Neurosciences and Psychiatry from Sapienza University of Rome. In 2013—2014, Dr. Piacentino was a Research Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome after being awarded an Italian Ministry of Research grant to investigate the use and misuse of anabolic steroids and new psychoactive drugs in a young sports population. In 2015 she received a Masters in Medical Statistics and Statistical Methods for Epidemiology from the University of Milan. In 2018, she completed clinical residency in Psychiatry at Sapienza University of Rome and Sant'Andrea Hospital. Her research has focused on the use of deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for alcohol and cocaine use disorders, the effects of anabolic steroids and novel psychoactive substances in athletes, the implementation of statistical models to investigate the harm due to substance use disorder, and the psychopathology and role of the gut-brain axis in functional gastrointestinal disorders.