Laura Crisa MD, PhD

Medicine/Metabolism, Endocrinology & Nutrition
Associate Professor

Email: lcrisa@uw.edu | Phone: 206.685.7815

Our research aims to discover tissue regenerative signals provided by pro-repair immune cells and blood vessels. Our goal is to exploit these signals to boost regeneration of injured pancreatic islet cells in vivo, expand the rare pool of stem cell-derived islet progenitors and deliver those signals to transplant sites to support survival and function of pancreatic islet tissue. We are further working at modeling islet tissue as functional micro-organs in a dish, so to monitor how islet cells get injured and whether they can recover in response to regenerative interventions. This line of studies has a direct impact on islet cell replacement strategies as treatment for patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.