Maria Petroni

Maria Letizia Petroni after graduating from the University of Milan, was a Clinical Research Fellow at the St. George's Hospital Medical School, London at the Departments of Gastroenterology (Prof. Tim Northfield) and subsequently at the Department of Physiology (Prof. Mike Stock) doing research on pathophysiology and therapy of metabolic complications of gastroenterological conditions (1989-1991) and subsequently on the pathophysiology of adipose tissue in obesity (1995).

From 1994 to 2010 she has been Senior Researcher and subsequently Deputy Director at the Experimental Laboratory of Nutritional Research IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, S. Giuseppe Piancavallo Hospital (VB); at the same IRCCS, she held the role of Head of the Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Service and, from 1996 to 2009, Head of the Nutritional and Gastroenterological Rehabilitation Unit. Later, she worked as a freelance clinical and scientific supervisor in the field of rehabilitation of morbid and disabling obesity.

The research interests are aimed in particular at the clinical management of morbid and disabling obesity, through the cognitive-behavioral therapy of obesity and metabolic diseases, with a particular focus on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). She currently focuses her research on ways to improve the efficacy of therapeutic education in various fields (NASH, metabolic diseases, obesity, binge-eating disorder, patients undergoing bariatric surgery) and on medical nutritional therapy.