Nicolino Valerio Valerio Dorrello, MD

Pediatrics
Treats Children
Profile Headshot

Overview

Dr. Nicolino Valerio Dorrello is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons since 2015. He obtained his MD from University of Naples (Italy) in 2000 and his PhD in Molecular Oncology at New York University in 2004, focusing on the role of ubiquitin mediated proteolysis in cell cycle regulation. He then completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Padua (Italy) in 2010 and a subsequent pediatric residency at Columbia University before staying for his Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and then as faculty. Dr. Dorrello is double board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care in Unites States and in Pediatrics in Europe. In his clinical duties in the pediatric critical care unit, one of the most devastating and common injuries he comes across, unfortunately, is severe, progressive lung injury. What represents a daily clinical challenge – making these patients better – has become his research passion. He has recently succeeded in developing an airway-specific method to efficiently remove only the lung epithelium (de-epithelialization) while preserving lung vasculature and architecture in anex vivo rodent model. This new functional, vascularized lung graft then enabled the attachment and engraftment of lung epithelial progenitors.

Dr. Dorrello’s laboratory is focused on elucidating the optimal strategies to selectively remove defective lung epithelial cells and supportthe proliferation and differentiation of lung progenitors towards healthy epithelium and ultimately lung repair.

Dr. Dorrello has published in international peer -reviewed journals of highest reputation, such as Science, Nature, Molecular Cell, PNAS, and Science Advances.

Areas of Expertise / Conditions Treated

  • Pediatric Critical Care
  • Pediatric Critical Care Specialist

Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Hospital Affiliations

  • NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center
  • NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

Languages

  • Italian

Gender

  • Male

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Insurance Accepted

Cigna

  • EPO
  • Great West (National)
  • HMO
  • POS
  • PPO

Emblem/GHI

  • Medicare Managed Care
  • PPO

Emblem/HIP

  • ConnectiCare
  • EPO
  • Essential Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid Managed Care
  • Medicare Managed Care
  • POS
  • PPO
  • Select Care (Exchange)
  • Vytra

Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield

  • Medicare Managed Care

Local 1199

  • Local 1199

MagnaCare (National)

  • MagnaCare

Medicare

  • Railroad
  • Traditional Medicare

Multiplan

  • Multiplan

MVP Health Care

  • Child/Family Health Plus
  • Essential Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid Managed Care

UnitedHealthcare

  • Columbia University Employee Plan
  • Compass (Exchange)
  • Empire Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid (Community Plan)
  • Medicare Managed Care
  • POS
  • PPO

*Please contact the provider’s office directly to verify that your particular insurance is accepted.

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • MD, Second University of Naples (Italy)
  • Internship: University of Padua School of Medicine Italy
  • Residency: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
  • Fellowship: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center

Committees, Societies, Councils

The New York Society of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Society of Critical Care Medicine

Board Certifications

  • Pediatrics

Honors & Awards

2001–2003 Leonino Fontana e Maria Lionello Research Fellowship sponsored by Federazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (FIRC)

2004–2005 Research Fellowship sponsored by the American-Italian Cancer Foundation (AICF)

2015–2019 John M. Driscoll, Jr., MD, Children’s Fund Scholar

2018–2021 Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Scholar

Research

In my clinical duties in the pediatric critical care unit, one of the most devastating and common injuries I come across, unfortunately, is severe, progressive lung injury. Despite current medical treatments, many of my young patients progress to chronic respiratory failure, leaving lung transplantation as the only definitive treatment. What represents a daily clinical challenge – making these patients better – has become my research passion: to find a therapeutic strategy to repair lungs early, before irreversible changes occur. My driving purpose is to help the children I see in intensive care to recover from severe lung injury and avoid the need for lung transplantation, so they can survive childhood and grow to have the fullest lives possible, free of chronic lung disease.

In the many different types of lung injury that I see, the primary tissue that is involved and injured is the lung epithelium. My overriding goal is to develop novel strategies to replace onlythe injured cells of the lung epithelium, while keeping the surrounding lung scaffold and vasculature intact. I recently succeeded in developing an airway-specific method to efficiently remove only the epithelium (de-epithelialization) while preserving lung vasculature and architecture in anex vivo rodent model. This new functional, vascularized lung graft then enabled the attachment and engraftment of lung epithelial progenitors (Science Advances, 2017). Prior to this breakthrough, earlier techniques to bioengineer functional lungs had been largely unsuccessful, as they attempted to use fully decellularized or synthetic scaffolds that lacked functional vasculature. My work shows that keeping the lung scaffold and vascular network intact and viable are critical for both maintaining the blood-gas barrier and for potentially guiding the growth and differentiation of exogenous lung progenitor cells towards a regeneration of healthy epithelium.

In summary, our work will define the optimal strategies to selectively removing defective lung epithelial cells and supportingthe proliferation and differentiation of lung progenitors towards healthy epithelium and ultimately lung repair.

Research Interests

  • lung injury
  • Lung regenerative medicine

Selected Publications

1) N.V. Dorrello, B. A. Guenthart,J. D. O'Neill, J. Kim, K. Cunningham,Y.-W. Chen,M. Biscotti, T. Swayne, H. M. Wobma,S. X. L. Huang, H.-W. Snoeck, M. Bacchetta, G. Vunjak-Novakovic. Functional vascularized lung grafts for lung bioengineering. Science Advances, 2017 Aug 30;3(8):e1700521. Highlighted in Science, Vascularized grafts for lungs. 357 (6354):883, 2017.

2) J. Kim,B. A. Guenthart, J.D. O'Neill, N.V. Dorrello, M. Bacchetta, G. Vunjak-Novakovic. Controlled delivery and minimally invasive imaging of stem cells in the lung. Scientific Reports, 2017 Oct 12;7(1):13082.

3) J. Kim, J.D. O'Neill, N.V. Dorrello, M. Bacchetta, G. Vunjak-Novakovic. Targeted delivery of liquid microvolumes into the lung. PNAS, 2015 Sep 15;112(37):11530-5.

4) N.V. Dorrello, A. Peschiaroli, D. Guardavaccaro, N.H. Colburn, N.E. Sherman, M. Pagano. S6K1- and betaTRCP-mediated degradation of PDCD4 promotes protein translation and cell growth. Science, 2006 Oct 20;314(5798):467-71. Highlighted in Science,Signal transduction. Protein synthesis and oncogenesis meet again (N. Sonenberg, A. Pause), 2006 Oct 20;314 (5798):428-9 and in Science STKE, Protein Degradation and Growth Regulation (L. Bryan Ray), Oct 2006.

5) D. Guardavaccaro, D. Frescas, N.V. Dorrello, A. Peschiaroli, A. S. Multani,T. Cardozo, A. Lasorella, A. Iavarone, S. Chang, E. Hernando,and M. Pagano. Control and of chromosome stability by the βTRCP-REST-MAD2 axis. Nature, 2008 Mar 20;452(7185):365-9.

6) A. Peschiaroli*, N.V. Dorrello*, D. Guardavaccaro, M.Venere, T. Halazonetis, N.E. Sherman, M. Pagano. SCFbetaTrCP-mediated degradation of Claspin regulates recovery from the DNA replication checkpoint response. Molecular Cell, 2006 Aug 4;23(3):319-29.

* Co-authors

7) T. Bashir,N.V. Dorrello, V. Amador, D. Guardavaccaro and M. Pagano. Control of the SCFSkp2-Cks1 ubiquitin ligase by the APC/Ccdh1 ubiquitin ligase. Nature, 2004 Mar 11;428(6979):190-3.

8) L. Busino, M. Donzelli, M. Chiesa, D. Guardavaccaro, D. Ganoth, N.V. Dorrello, A. Hershko, M. Pagano and G. Draetta. Ubiquitin-mediated degradation of Cdc25A by ß-Trcp during S phase and in response to DNA damage. Nature, 2003 Nov 6;426(6962):87-91.