Mauricio Di Fulvio

Biography

Academic Appointments  : Research Assistant, Wright State University Department of Physiology and Biophysics Post-doctoral Fellow, WSU Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology Research Associate, WSU Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Visiting Scientist, Children’s Cancer Institute Australia, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, WSU

Research Interest

Type-2 Diabetes Mechanisms of insulin secretion His laboratory is interested in the study of the KATP-independent anionic mechanisms of insulin secretion and how widely used diuretics impact the ability of pancreatic islets to produce insulin and regulate carbohydrate metabolism. His research is primarily focused on the molecular biology, gene expression and the regulation of ion transporters targeted by diuretics and how they impact insulin secretion in vitro and in vivo. Basically, his interests are centered at the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of transporters' gene expression, the intracellular signaling networks leading to transcriptional or post-transcriptional modulation of their expression and function and how these mechanisms interact to modulate insulin secretion in response to nutrients. They use animal or cellular models, which have been genetically modified to lack or over express genes of interest. They routinely use functional methods to assess glucose homeostasis, tissue function and hormone secretion. Molecular techniques such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), reverse transcription coupled to PCR, cloning, sub-cloning, site directed mutagenesis, molecular tagging, gene silencing, gene over expression, and other molecular, immunological and imaging techniques aimed at visualizing gene expression and localization are routinely used in their laboratory to address their research hypothesis.