Antonio Abbate

In 2016, Antonio Abbate, MD, PhD, a prominent leader in the field of heart disease, joined Olatec’s Drug Development Team and became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board in March 2017. For Olatec, Dr. Abbate has been contributing to the development of dapansutrile in the design and conduct of Olatec’s preclinical programs in cardiovascular disease, as a result of his deep knowledge and expertise in the research of NLRP3 inflammasome and its inhibition of the release of IL-1β and IL-18. In 2018, Dr. Abbate served as Principal Investigator in a Phase 1b trial with dapansutrile in subjects with stable systolic heart failure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Abbate has been serving as a member of VCU’s COVID-19 Clinical Trials committee and principal investigator or co-investigator on phase 2/3 trials with anti-viral and anti-inflammatory treatments, including IL-1β biologics to treat moderate to late stage COVID-19 patients. Dr. Abbate is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Abbate currently holds the endowed James C. Roberts, Esq. Professor of Cardiology of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Pauley Heart Center and serves as an attending physician in the General Cardiology, and the Coronary Intensive Care Unit, and as Medical Director of Clinical Research Services Unit of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Abbate leads a multidisciplinary team in the VCU Pauley Heart Center and the Johnson Research Laboratories, examining the role of inflammation in cardiac diseases. Dr. Abbate is also principal investigator on several preclinical research studies and pilot clinical studies funded by, among others, the National Institute of Health, and the American Heart Association, aimed at identifying novel anti-inflammatory therapies for patients with acute myocardial infarction or heart failure. Dr. Abbate also performs clinical duties in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit, the General Cardiology Practice and the Ambulatory Care Center at VCU Medical Center. Dr. Abbate is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Fellow of American Heart Association, and Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. Dr. Abbate has authored or co-authored over 300 articles, reviews and editorials that have been published in professional journals. In addition, he has participated in more than 350 oral and poster presentations to national and international meetings. Dr. Abbate is a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, PLOS ONE, and Translational Medicine and is a peer reviewer for more than twenty international journals. Dr. Abbate received his Medical Degree from University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy and completed a Clinical Fellowship in Adult Cardiovascular Medicine and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Cardiology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. In Rome, Dr. Abbate trained under Drs. Attilio Maseri and Filippo Crea. Dr. Maseri’s group pioneered the understanding of the role of inflammation in heart disease and proposed the use of the IL-1 biologic, anakinra, to treat acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Abbate then completed an additional Internal Medicine Residency program at VCU Hospitals in Richmond, Virginia.