Laura Piccio is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney with a joint appointment in the Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She is a physician scientist, and her research is dedicated to understanding the neuroimmune interactions underlying neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Within this, she focuses on innate immune cells such as microglia and the role of nutrition, metabolism in modulating immune-inflammatory responses. Her research approach is to quickly take laboratory-based research findings into the clinical setting. Among her research contributions there  is her work on characterizing the role of the immune receptor TREM2 on microglia in response to central nervous system injury as well as the effects of dietary restriction on neuroinflammation. Dr. Piccio obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Milan, Italy where she also completed a neurology residency program. Early in her career she was awarded a national MS Society post-doctoral fellowship that she undertook at Washington University under the supervision of Dr. Anne H. Cross. During her career Dr. Piccio was the recipient of several awards including the Harry Weaver Neuroscience Award from the National MS Society, the Dana Neuroscience Scholar award from the Dana Foundation and the Whitaker prize from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC).