My research over the last thirteen years has been focused on the genetics, immunology and proteomics of autoimmune disease, in particular of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). As a graduate student I worked on a project focused on understanding the immune system regulation and its involvement in diseases, in detail, we evaluated the quantitative variation of several leukocyte populations in peripheral blood including monocytes, granulocytes, circulating dendritic cells and lymphocytes divided in NK, B and T cell subsets. After graduation, I spent five years in USA as a post doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Lisa Denzin at Child Health Institute-Rutgers University (NJ), my research was focused on the genetic components that affect the immune system and, in particular, the contribution of non-DR/DQ genes in the MHC that modify disease susceptibility to T1D in the Sardinian population. My current project aims to characterize by flow cytometry extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the peripheral blood of  Sardinians volunteers. EVs are small vesicles known to facilitate intercellular communication in different cellular processes. Also, I’m still studying DM function in the MHC class II antigen-processing pathway to establish functional differences in DM alleles and how functional differences in DM activity influences the development of human T1D.