Piemonti Lorenzo Professore associatoMedicineMEDS-08/A – Endocrinologia
Biography
Biography
At the IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, Lorenzo Piemonti is Director of the Diabetes Research Institute and Chief of the Department of Regenerative Medicine and Transplantation. He also leads the Beta Cell Biology Unit and directs the Human Islet Isolation Facility and the Islet Transplantation Program. Previously, he coordinated the European Consortium for Islet Transplantation, which since 2000 has played a key role in providing human beta cell products for research and clinical applications at San Raffaele, in Italy, and across Europe.
He is Professor of Endocrinology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan and served as Visiting Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel from 2016 to 2022.
His scientific activity lies at the intersection of diabetes, pancreatology, and regenerative medicine, with an integrated approach combining pathophysiology, innovative therapies, and precision medicine. His research focuses on the development and validation of beta cell replacement therapies, immune tolerance induction strategies, and the study of immune–endocrine interactions in the pancreas. Specific interests include beta cell differentiation and maturation, the development of biomaterials and scaffolds to support islet transplantation, and strategies to protect beta cells from immune-mediated damage in autoimmune diabetes.
A major component of his work addresses immune tolerance in transplantation, with the aim of preventing graft rejection while minimizing systemic immunosuppression. In this context, his laboratory has contributed to elucidating the role of innate immune responses and their impact on adaptive immunity, with particular emphasis on the tolerogenic potential of dendritic cells.
In regenerative medicine, his research focuses on the differentiation and reprogramming of pluripotent stem cells to generate functional insulin-producing cells for therapeutic purposes. He has also contributed to the development of bioengineered pancreas constructs and organoid models as experimental platforms to study diabetes pathogenesis and to test emerging therapeutic strategies.
Beyond diabetes, he has conducted significant research in pancreatic oncology, investigating interactions between cancer cells, stromal components, and the tumor microenvironment, and exploring innovative regenerative and immunomodulatory approaches for pancreatic cancer.
As a physician-scientist, he is strongly committed to translational research aimed at bridging advanced scientific discoveries and clinical practice. This includes the design of clinical trials for cell-based and immune interventions and the integration of high-dimensional clinical and multi-omics data to support precision medicine approaches in diabetes and related disorders.
He currently serves as Section Editor for Cell Transplantation – The Regenerative Medicine Journal and as Associate Editor for Transplant International and the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation. He previously served on the Editorial Board of Acta Diabetologia.
In institutional leadership roles, he is President of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Association (IPITA) for the 2025–2027 term under The Transplantation Society and a member of the Steering Committee of the European Pancreas and Islet Transplant Registry (EPITR). He previously held leadership roles within the Italian Society of Diabetes, the European Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Association, and the Italian National Committee for Food Safety.
Scientific and Publication Activity
Lorenzo Piemonti has authored more than 360 original articles published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in PubMed. His H-index is 69 (Web of Science), 75 (Scopus), and 87 (Google Scholar). His work has received more than 32,000 total citations. During the 2020–2024 period, he authored 115 original articles, achieving a cumulative impact factor of 905.933 and a total Scopus Citation Index of 5,633. Since 2021, he has been continuously listed in the Stanford University/Elsevier ranking of the world’s most cited scientists, placing him within the top 2% of researchers worldwide in Clinical Medicine and Endocrinology & Metabolism.
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