M.D., Medicine, University of Torino, Italy, 1974 Residency, Regina Margherita Children’s Hospital,, University of Torino, 1977 Fellowship, Institute of Medical Genetics, University of Torino, 1976
Research Interests:
1. The etiology of human autoimmune diseases (e.g., insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus [IDDM] or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy [IDC]) are studied in an effort to further understand the diseases’ pathogenesis. T-cell receptor repertoire among the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in patients with these diseases is studied in vivo, while in vitro PBMC from healthy individuals are challenged against virus proteins and lysates from virus infected cells to determine the nature of the antigenic protein segment.
2. The insulin-producing ?- cell of the pancreas are killed by apoptotic mechanisms that seems to spare ? and ?- cells. Gene therapy approaches for blocking apoptosis and rejection of transplanted pancreatic islets are tested in animal models before being used in human trials. Tolerogenic protocols are also considered.
3. The possibility of using animals as an endless source of pancreatic islet cells is tested using DKO pigs.
4. Exploitation of adult stem cells for endocrine pancreas regeneration.
Suppression of autoimmune diabetes by soluble galectin-1. Marcelo J Perone, Suzanne Bertera, William J Shufesky, Sherrie J Divito, Angela Montecalvo, Alicia R Mathers, Adriana T Larregina, Mabel Pang, Nilufer Seth, Kai W Wucherpfennig, Massimo Trucco, Linda G Baum, Adrian E Morelli J. Immunol. 2009 Mar;182:2641-53
