Expertise
Clinical trials in type 1 diabetes and islet and pancreas transplantation.
Immunology and genetics of type 1 diabetes, disease prediction and prevention, islet transplantation related research.
Dr. Pugliese also leads several research projects at the University of Miami: 1) studies on diabetes recurrence in pancreas transplant recipients (with Dr. George Burke); 2) studies of IL-2 as a novel treatment for islet autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes (with Drs. Tom Malek and Jay Skyler); 3) studies to identifying novel microRNA biomarkers for prediction of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Pugliese's research interest also include the genetic and cellular mechanisms of immunological self-tolerance, the lack of which results in autoimmunity and diabetes. Insulin is a critical target of the autoimmune responses that cause diabetes. His discovery that insulin is produced in the thymus has highlighted a previously unknown mechanism by which self-tolerance is achieved in the thymus.