Who are you?

I’m Raniero Chimienti. I obtained my PhD in Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine from the University of Milan in 2017. I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Diabetes Research Institute of San Raffaele hospital in Milan [2], where my efforts lie in creating next-generation platforms for the cell therapy of type 1 diabetes.

Can you sum up what you do for a living without sounding like a mad scientist?

As you might have guessed from where I work, I am engaged in diabetes research. Nevertheless, my work involves the use of stem cells and applying genetic engineering techniques, so it’s difficult not to give the impression of being a sort of “mad scientist”. Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar due to the progressive destruction of the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. My research aims at curing diabetes by transforming stem cells into pancreatic beta cells, which sense blood sugar levels and produce insulin to reduce them. Furthermore, my colleagues and I employ genetic modification to strengthen these cells, making them safe for the patient and allowing their long-term survival after transplantation.

What is the most common layman misunderstanding about your field? 

There are a lot of false myths and misconceptions about diabetes. Above all, people confuse type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Commonly, people think that diabetes is only correlated with weight or obesity, but this is the case more with type 2 diabetes. Conversely, type 1 diabetes is an early-onset disease caused by an immune system attack that leads to progressive destruction of pancreatic insulin-producing cells; patients cannot produce insulin and control glycemia, irrespective of their dietary habits. This misunderstanding manifests in the types of comments you hear people make about diabetic children, like “he’ll outgrow it,” “did they feed him too much sugar?” or, frequently, the dangerous idea “he must reduce his sugar intake, absolutely!”

How has the pandemic affected your field?

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, several clinical and translational research departments have been internally reorganized, and scientists and physicians in the Diabetes Research Institute have had to divert part of their efforts and resources to emergency management. However, our research never stopped and although there were some difficulties, our experiments went on.

Describe your current working week in five keywords.

Planning, teamwork, challenging, insights, worries.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Producing technically correct experiments and statistically confirming my results, even if they aren’t what I expect.

What do you do to unwind?

I leave the laboratory at the end of the day and enjoy a meal prepared together with my sweetheart. We really enjoy experimenting, even in the kitchen.

What is the one question in the universe that you would love to answer?

Oscar Wilde wrote, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” My question concerns a mystery that has long vexed philosophers and nowadays engages scientists and neuro-engineers: “what is the consciousness [3] and where we have to look to find it?”