University of Miami
Biomedical Research Building
1450 N.W. 10th Avenue
Miami, FL 33136
(305) 243-3636
www.diabetesresearch.org
The Diabetes Research Institute leads the world in cure-focused research. As the largest and most comprehensive research center dedicated to curing diabetes, The Diabetes Research Institute the DRI is aggressively working to develop a biological cure by restoring natural insulin production and normalizing blood sugar levels without imposing other risks. Since its inception, the DRI has made significant contributions to the field of diabetes, pioneering many of the techniques used in diabetes centers around the world. Having already shown that diabetes can be reversed through islet transplantation, the DRI is building upon these promising outcomes by developing the DRI BioHub,a bioengineered “mini organ” that mimics the native pancreas, containing thousands of insulin-producing cells that sense blood sugar and release the precise amount of insulin needed, in real time.
Established: 1971
Director: Camillo Ricordi, MD
Camillo Ricordi, M.D. is the Stacy Joy Goodman Professor of Surgery, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami, Florida, where he serves as Director of the Diabetes Research Institute and the Cell Transplant Program. Acknowledged by his peers as one of the world’s leading scientists in diabetes cure focused research and cell transplantation, Dr. Ricordi is well-known for inventing the machine that made it possible to isolate large numbers of islet cells from the human pancreas and for performing the first series of successful clinical islet transplants that reversed diabetes after implantation of donor purified islets into the liver of recipients with diabetes.