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Faculty Focus: Antonio Adamo

Antonio Adamo, assistant professor of bioscience in the University's Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division.

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Antonio Adamo joined KAUST in February 2016 as an assistant professor of bioscience in the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division. Adamo’s research interests focus on the study of the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms dysregulated in metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). His team relies on the use of an innovative reprogramming technique to derive induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from fibroblasts obtained from large cohorts of patients and healthy donors. iPSCs can be differentiated to virtually all cell types of the human body and therefore constitute an unprecedented cellular platform to model disease progression.

He received his master’s degree in medical biotechnologies and molecular medicine and his Ph.D. in biotechnologies and molecular medicine from the University of Milan. After defending his Ph.D., he was offered a postdoctoral fellow position at the Barcelona Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CMRB) (Universitat de Barcelona). After this, he joined the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan as a FEBS senior postdoctoral fellow.

Adamo chose to come to KAUST because he was thoroughly impressed with the University and its campus, which he saw while attending a conference at KAUST in 2014. After an initial meeting with KAUST Professor Valerio Orlando, Adamo was convinced he should join the University.

“After my first visit and after looking at the KAUST website, I was amazed, so I contacted Valerio to ask to whether there were any job possibilities at KAUST, and there were, so I applied, and here I am two years later,” Adamo said.

Through his work, Adamo believes he can add to the already impressive research conducted at KAUST and that the opportunities for “blue skies research” at the University are unlimited.

“I believe I have good ideas, and I am grateful that KAUST believed in me and gave me the opportunity to test my capabilities as a PI and as a scientist. I am confident this pairing will bring good results,” he said.

-By David Murphy, KAUST News.