Regazzi Romano

Biography

Romano Regazzi, a specialist in pancreatic beta cells and the pathophysiology of diabetes, was promoted to full professor in the Department of Fundamental Neurosciences of UNIL (formerly Department of Cell Biology and Morphology) from 1 August 2012. He is also currently Vice- Director of the School of Medicine and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Swiss Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology. Born in Locarno in 1960, Romano Regazzi holds a Bachelor's degree in natural sciences from the UNIL, which he obtained in 1983. He then decided to pursue a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Basel. His thesis work, completed in 1987, concerns the role of protein kinase C in the proliferation of mammary carcinoma cells. He pursued his career as a researcher in the Division of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Geneva as a postdoctoral researcher and later as assistant professor. Since that time, he has been interested in the molecular mechanisms behind diabetes mellitus. In 1997, he obtained an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Morphology at UNIL. He was appointed Associate Professor in 2001,

Research Interest

The causes of the dysfunction of the beta cells at the origin of diabetes are at the center of the research of Romano Regazzi. His team has made a significant contribution to understanding the mechanisms that control the activities of beta cells and has been among the first to identify proteins allowing the release by exocytosis of insulin.Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by a chronic increase in blood glucose levels. It results from a dysfunction or loss of pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, a hormone that plays a crucial role in controlling blood sugar levels.