Diabetes is one of the most serious chronic diseases. In Spain alone it affects more than 5 million people, one in 7 adults, and every year more than 25,000 people die from it.
In the second episode of ‘Absolutos y Relativos‘, the Spanish-language outreach podcast of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), we discover the scientific advances that the team of Lorenzo Pasquali, principal investigator of the endocrine genomic regulation group of the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University (MELIS-UPF), is making in relation to the functioning of diabetes.
Diabetes is generally characterized by a failure in the beta cells of the pancreas. In Lorenzo’s own words, “there is a dialogue between cells of the immune system and insulin-producing beta cells, and diabetes leads to a misunderstanding that ends with the destruction of beta cells”. His team is currently analyzing transcription factors, the “switches” responsible for activating and deactivating genes, to decipher where the error lies in the communication between beta cells and lymphocytes.
In this interview Lorenzo will also tell us what kind of obstacles a researcher in a wheelchair faces, pointing out the architectural barriers he encounters on a daily basis. Join us to meet Lorenzo, an Italian pediatrician who has redirected his career towards molecular and computational research.
Don’t miss his testimony!
