Anna Casu, MD

Dr. Anna Casu is Associate Investigator at the Translational Research Institute and Von Weller Family Chair in Type 1 Diabetes Research. Her research focuses on type 1 diabetes (T1D) epidemiology, prediction, and pathogenic mechanisms linked to the relationship between the exocrine and endocrine pancreas and the onset of T1D in adults.
She obtained her medical degree and completed her residency and fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, when she published articles about the world’s second-highest incidence rate of T1D on the island. She became a Post-Doctoral Associate, then Research Associate, at the University of Pittsburgh, then moved back to Italy where she became Chief of the Diabetes and Islet Transplantation Unit and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, both based in Palermo, Italy. There, she established and managed the pancreatic islet transplant unit and program, and her research was funded by the European Union.
Leveraging her knowledge of human pancreas biology, Dr. Casu’s current research interest focuses on the relationship between the exocrine and the endocrine pancreas, with an emphasis on cell-to-cell interactions and circulating biomarkers. She is the local principal investigator of the NCI-funded New-Onset Diabetes (NOD) study of the Chronic Pancreatitis Diabetes Pancreatic Cancer Consortium and co-investigator for the NIH/NIDDK funded Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium, where she serves as co-chair of the Immunology Working Group. She actively collaborates with AdventHealth gastroenterologists and surgeons specializing in caring for patients with disorders of the pancreas.