Rodrigo Vieira Motta

I am a clinical trials research fellow at the Translational Gastroenterology and Liver Unit, being directly involved with patients enrolled in clinical trials funded by academia and industry. In addition to my patient-facing capacities, I am involved in designing and running observational studies in autoimmune and metabolic liver diseases, thus joining my background as a clinician with my passion for research methodology and biostatistics.

As part of the IgG4-related disease group, I study the pathophysiology of this recently described disease and use translational approaches to identify potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. We are currently developing a large national cohort of patients to assess how effective disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are in controlling IgG4-RD. We are analysing the methylome of patients with IgG4-RD and PSC, and seek to identify profiles of DNA methylation specific to IgG4-RD involving the liver, pancreas and bile ducts. Furthermore, we also investigate the use of technologies already validated in other liver diseases, such as transient elastography and scores based on blood biomarkers, to assess tissue inflammation and fibrosis in patients with IgG4-RD, which put them in danger of loss of function in organs affected by the disease.