Vincenzo Cirulli, MD, PhD
Title:
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition
Email Address:
Background:
Vincenzo Cirulli received his MD from the University of Rome in Italy in 1986, and he then moved to the University of Geneva, School of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland, to train as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Philippe Halban. In 1989 he received a Board Certification in Endocrinology and Metabolism, and in 1994 he was recruited as a Senior Research Fellow in the Islet Research Laboratory of Dr. Alberto Hayek at the Whittier Institute for Diabetes, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, where in 1996 received a JDRF Career Developmental Award and was appointed as an Assistant Research Scientist. In 1998 he completed a Research Doctorate in Endocrine Sciences and Metabolism through a joint program with the University of Rome (European equivalent of a PhD), and in 2002 was promoted to Associate Research Scientist. In 2009 he was recruited as Associate Professor to the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence and the Institute of Stem cell and Regenerative Medicine, both at the University of Washington.
Dr. Cirulli has been serving on study sections in islet cell biology for the Swiss National Science Foundation, The Netherland Cancer Institute, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the NIH.
Focus:
The overall objective of the Dr. Cirulli’s research work is to understand mechanisms of islet cell development and function, with special emphasis on the role of cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion receptors as instructive cues for developing islet progenitors. In an effort to develop strategies of possible translational value to human diseases, his research makes use of both, animal models and human ES and iPS cells.
The interest of Dr. Cirulli in cell adhesion receptors matured over the years from his former training in islet cell biology. Hence, his earlier work demonstrated that select adhesion receptors are responsible for the highly organized architectural arrangement of the different cell types within pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Building on those observations, his laboratory has uncovered important functions for a number of adhesion molecules expressed in the developing pancreatic epithelium. Some of them involved in pancreatic cell growth and expansion, some regulating basic cell adhesion and migration, others functioning as path-finding cues for the emergence of putative pancreatic progenitors from the pancreatic ductal epithelium. An important corollary of the dynamic expression of some adhesion receptors in distinct pancreatic cell types at select developmental stages is that they can also impart specific developmental decisions. It is from these latter observations that Dr. Cirulli’s current work aims at exploiting the signaling properties of select cell adhesion molecules to foster the development of insulin-producing cells from either ES or iPS cells.
Representative Publications:
Cirulli V, Halban PA & Rouiller DR: “Tumor necrosis factor-alpha modifies adhesion properties of rat islet B-cells”. The Journal of Clinical Investigation (1993) 91:1868-1876.
Cirulli V, Baetens D, Rutishauser U, Halban PA, Orci L & Rouiller DR: “Expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and E-cadherin in rat islets and its role in islet cell type segregation”. Journal of Cell Science (1994) 107:1429-1436.
Cirulli V, Crisa L, Beattie GM, Mally MI, Lopez AD, Fannon A, Ptasznik A, Inverardi L, Ricordi C, Deerinck T, Ellisman M, Reisfeld RA & Hayek A: “KSA antigen Ep-CAM mediates cell-cell adhesion of pancreatic epithelial cells: morphoregulatory roles in pancreatic islet development”. The Journal of Cell Biology (1998) 140:1519-1534.
Cirulli V, Beattie GM, Klier G, Ellisman M, Ricordi C, Quaranta V, Frasier F, Ishii JK, Hayek A & Salomon DR: “Expression and function of avb3 and avb5 integrins in the developing pancreas: roles in the adhesion and migration of putative endocrine progenitor cells”. The Journal of Cell Biology (2000) 150:1445-1459.
Yebra M, Montgomery AM, Diaferia GR, Kaido T, Silletti S, Perez B, Just ML, Hildbrand S, Hurford R, Florkiewicz E, Tessier-Lavigne M & Cirulli V: “Recognition of the neural chemoattractant Netrin-1 by integrins a6b4 and a3b1 egulates epithelial cell adhesion and migration”. Developmental Cell (2003) 5:695-707.
Cirulli V and Yebra M: “Netrins: beyond the brain”. Nature Rev Mol Cell Biol. (2007) 4:296-306.
Current Collaborations:
Within the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence and its Affiliated Members
Laura Crisa, MD, PhD
Alan Chait, MD
Mike Schwartz, MD
Ian Sweet, PhD
Outside of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence
Anthony Blau, MD, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM), University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Carol Ware, PhD, ISCRM, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Marshall Horwitz, PhD, ISCRM, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Randall Moon, PhD, ISCRM, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Jerry Nepom, MD, PhD, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA
Valera Vasioukhin, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
Alberto Hayek, MD, UCSD, La Jolla, CA
Maike Sander, MD, UCSD, La Jolla CA
Christopher Rhodes, PhD, University of Chicago, IL
Lab Members:
Robert Florkiewicz, Laboratory Manager
Antonio Jimenez-Caliani, Post Doctoral Fellow
Rudolph Pillich, Post Doctoral Fellow