Mona Rita Yacoub

Dr. Mona-Rita Yacoub is the coordinator of the Department of Allergology in the Department of Immunology, Rheumatology, Allergology and Rare Diseases at the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, headed by Professor Lorenzo Dagna.

After graduating from the University of Milan in Medicine and Surgery in 2002, she specialized in allergology and clinical immunology at the University of Pavia in 2006. After receiving a Master's Degree in Biomedical Sciences in Clinical Research from the University of Montreal in 2006, she received a doctorate in Molecular Medicine from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in 2012 as part of a one-year scholarship.

Clinically, Dr. Yacoub conducts outpatient visits in connection with the following pathologies:

• allergies to medications, including severe exfoliative dermatitis, allergies to contrast agents and chemotherapeutic drugs
• respiratory allergy: rhinitis, chronic polypous rhinosinusitis or without it, asthma, with special experience in the field of bronchial inflammation and severe asthma, with interdisciplinary discussion of complex cases (Council of Allergology, Immunology, Otorhinolaryngology – AIORL)
• food allergy, even in a multidisciplinary clinic of food allergy / intolerance together with colleagues-gastroenterologists, if the manifestations are mainly gastrointestinal (link to the news)
• anaphylaxis
• chronic spontaneous urticaria, angiodema
• atopic dermatitis
• mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome 
• dispensary observation of severe allergic diseases (asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis, urticaria, atopic dermatitis) during therapy with biological drugs

In addition, she conducts consultations on allergology for hospitalized patients. She is also engaged in desensitization to chemotherapy and drugs based on monoclonal antibodies.

As for research activities, the doctor is engaged, in particular, in the study of biomarkers in patients suffering from severe asthma with possible concomitant diseases (nasal polyps), and diamine oxidase in patients with gastrointestinal disorders. The main attention is also paid to the characterization of risk factors for the development of severe hypersensitivity reactions to drugs, including chemotherapeutic, and the study of the mechanisms underlying severe allergic reactions to drugs such as DRESS (drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms), Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis.

She is the author and co-author of 47 scientific publications in national and international journals. Constantly participates as a speaker at national and international industry congresses.