{"id":3299,"date":"2019-03-02T00:22:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T05:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/people\/dominic-ciavatta-phd\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:35:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T15:35:46","slug":"dominic-ciavatta-phd","status":"publish","type":"ud_entry","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/people\/dominic-ciavatta-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominic Ciavatta, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Ciavatta studies anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) to identify the genetic and epigenetic drivers contributing to disease susceptibility and severity. Large-scale genetic studies in humans have identified HLA variants (proteins that present antigens to T cells) more frequently in patients with AAV than healthy individuals, suggesting variants in HLA genes predispose individuals to AAV. Currently his lab is investigating how the HLA variants linked with AAV interact with patient\u2019s T cells. Using a mouse model of AAV, they observed differences in glomerular damage among inbred strains of mice, indicating a genetic component influences disease severity.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ciavatta and colleagues also found that patients with AAV differ from healthy individuals at the level of epigenetics\u2013that is, changes that regulate gene activity, independent of the DNA sequence. Epigenetic modifications to DNA and histones (proteins used to compact DNA into a cell\u2019s nucleus) associated with inactive genes are deficient at key genes in patients with AAV. Intriguingly, patients that restore the DNA modifications are less likely to relapse, which suggests a patient\u2019s epigenetic status may predict disease progression. Dr. Ciavatta\u2019s lab is examining genome wide epigenetic changes in patients to understand molecular mechanisms regulating gene activation that are disrupted in AAV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2400,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ud_division":[156,163,155,94],"class_list":["post-3299","ud_entry","type-ud_entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ud_division-all-faculty-profiles","ud_division-autoimmune","ud_division-our-faculty-syndication","ud_division-nephrology-faculty","odd"],"acf":[],"ud_entry_custom_fields":{"ud_last_name":"Ciavatta","ud_first_name":"Dominic","ud_gallery_summary":"","ud_telephone":false,"ud_email":"","ud_positions":[{"ud_title":"Associate Professor of Medicine"}],"ud_options":[],"ud_sort_order":""},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1307\/2022\/05\/dominic-ciavatta.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1307\/2022\/05\/dominic-ciavatta.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1307\/2022\/05\/dominic-ciavatta.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1307\/2022\/05\/dominic-ciavatta.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1307\/2022\/05\/dominic-ciavatta-150x150.jpg","yoast_head":"\nDominic Ciavatta, PhD - Division of Nephrology and Hypertension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/people\/dominic-ciavatta-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dominic Ciavatta, PhD - Division of Nephrology and Hypertension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Ciavatta studies anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) to identify the genetic and epigenetic drivers contributing to disease susceptibility and severity. 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