EDUCATION
1995 - M.D.; Univ. of Rome “La Sapienza” Medical School, Rome, Italy

1996 - Board Certification in Medicine; Univ. of Rome “La Sapienza” Medical

            School, Rome, Italy

2000 - Specialist in Endocrinology; Univ. of Rome “La Sapienza” Medical            

            School, Rome, Italy

Research Projects
Vascular complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic individuals. A growing body of evidence indicates that impaired function of endothelial cells (EC), the cell type that line the vessels, may participate to diabetic vascular disease. Specifically, EC dysfunction may play a role in the accelerated atherosclerosis observed in diabetic individuals. However, the molecular bases underlying EC injury are poorly characterized in vivo. We have recently identified several proteins (e.g. profilin-1) that may participate to atherosclerotic plaque formation in the course of diabetes. Thus, our current efforts are aimed at investigating: 1) the transcriptional machinery that drive the abnormal expression of selected genes such as profilin-1 observed in diabetic vessels, 2) the role of candidate transcription factors in the onset and progression of diabetic atherosclerosis, and 3) new approaches to prevent or lessen the activation of transcription factors relevant to vascular disease.
The long-term goal of this project is to unravel regulatory mechanisms critical for EC injury that can be targeted for early diagnosis and/or management of diabetic vascular disease.

selected  PUBLICATIONS
Romeo G., Liu W-H, Asnaghi V, Kern TS, Lorenzi M. Activation of Nuclear Factor-kappa-B Induced by Diabetes and High Glucose Regulates a Proapoptotic Program in Retinal Pericytes. Diabetes. 2002;51:2241-2248

Voss SD, DeGrand AM, Romeo G., Cantley LC, Frangioni JV. An Integrated Vector System for Cellular Studies of Phage Display-Derived Peptides. Anal Biochem. 2002;308:364-372

Romeo G, Frangioni JV, and Kazlauskas A. Profilin acts downstream of LDL to mediate diabetic endothelial cell dysfunction. FASEB J. 2004; 18:725-727.

Lei H, Romeo G, Kazlauskas A. Heat Shock Protein 90{alpha}-Dependent Translocation of Annexin II to the Surface of Endothelial Cells Modulates Plasmin Activity in the Diabetic Rat Aorta. Circ. Res. 2004; 94:902-909.