Fields of Research

• Developmental biology of the pancreatic islet cell lineage.
• Mechanisms of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions.
• Biology of stem/progenitor cells in pancreatic islet regeneration.
• Cell replacement therapies for diabetes.

Research Summary

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, pluripotent stem cells, and human adult islet tissue.

Research Statement

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.

Awards and Honors

Career Development Award from the JDRF, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Mary Jane Kugel Award for service in the JDRF Medical Science Review Committee

NIH-CSR Recognition for services to the NIDDK-CADO study section.

Served and continue to serve on multiple scientific review panels for the NIH (NIH-NIDDK Special Emphasis Review Panel for the Beta Cell Biology Consortium; CADO, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program; NIH-Bioengineering Sciences and Technologies).

Member of the JDRF Islet Research Portfolio Advisory Committee (RPAC).

The Netherlands Cancer Research Foundation.

Member, Steering Committee for the Western Region Islet Study Group.