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Dr. Alberto Pugliese is a Research Associate Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Microbiology, and Head of the Immunogenetics Program at the Diabetes Research Institute.
Since joining the DRI in 1994, Dr. Pugliese's research has focused on the causes, prevention and cure of type 1 diabetes. His work involves the analysis of genetic and immunological factors that lead to, or protect against, the development of type 1 diabetes.
One area of clinical investigation is aimed at assessing prevention and intervention strategies in patients at increased risk of type 1 diabetes as well as those newly diagnosed. In another clinical research study, he is monitoring the recurrence of autoimmunity in transplanted patients and ß-cell regeneration in the context of autoimmune diabetes.
At the basic science level, Dr. Pugliese has actively investigated the genetic and cellular mechanisms of immunological self-tolerance, that is, the body's recognition and acceptance of "self." The lack of self-tolerance results in autoimmunity. Insulin is a critical target of the autoimmune responses that cause type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Pugliese's discovery that insulin is produced in the thymus (unrelated to blood sugar control) has highlighted a previously unknown mechanism for self-tolerance. In related studies, he identified a subset of dendritic (immune system) cells that also express insulin that have the potential for novel, cell-based therapies aimed at restoring self-tolerance in patients with diabetes.
Dr. Pugliese has served on research grant review committees of the National Institutes of Health, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and chaired the American Diabetes Association's Grant Review Panel.
He is a member of several international research programs including Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium.
Dr. Pugliese's research has been published in major international journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Immunology, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Lancet, among other prestigious, peer-reviewed journals.
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>>Listen to podcast with Alberto Pugliese, M.D.
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