**About the Editors**

#### **Roberta Masella**

Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Research director at Centre for Gender specific Medicine. Dr. ` Masella has been working on the role of dietary components in the pathogenesis, prevention, and therapy of non-communicable diseases characterized by nutritional risk factors and associated with inflammation and oxidative stress, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, and cancer. The research projects she has managed studied the relationship between adipose tissue dysfunctions and the onset of pathologies, as well as that between dietary components and cell functions. She collaborated on nutritional intervention studies to compare the effects of diets differing in types of FAs on clinical and metabolic parameters. In the last few years, she studied the crosstalk between adipose tissue and immune cells in obese and colon cancer subjects, demonstrating the effects of dietary fatty acid on the inflammatory process activation in human visceral adipose tissue in obesity and colon cancer. Furthermore, she has long-standing experience on the mechanisms of action of dietary polyphenols and their effects on cell functions.

#### **Francesca Cirulli**

Francesca Cirulli is a Senior Researcher and group leader at the Center for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome, Italy. Her research investigates the ` role of lifestyle, dietary, and social factors in determining stress vulnerability and resilience and the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying it. She is currently investigating how developmental stressors, such as a high-fat diet or psychosocial stress, can have adverse consequences on brain development and behavior. Epigenetic markers, neuroimmune regulations and microbiota signatures in preclinical studies and clinical cohorts are assessed to derive mechanisms and novel targets for prevention and treatment of mental disorders. She is currently leading a clinical trial (EPICURO) to study the role of dietary curcumin on inflammatory mediators and cognitive decline in elderly with metabolic syndrome.
