Raghu G. Mirmira

Raghavendra G. Mirmira is an American physician-scientist and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. He specializes in the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic beta cell dysfunction in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). His laboratory has identified stress-induced pathways in β-cells that contribute to autoimmune attack in T1D and has advanced clinical trials repurposing the [...] difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) to preserve β-cell function in new-onset T1D.

Mirmira has held leadership roles at three NIH-funded Diabetes Research Centers and serves as deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2025 and received the Albert Renold Award from the American Diabetes Association in 2023.

Education and training

Mirmira graduated with an AB in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1986. He earned a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology in 1991 and an MD in 1993, both from the university's Pritzker School of Medicine. His doctoral research under Howard S. Tager focused on insulin-receptor interactions.

He completed an internal medicine residency (1993–1995) and a fellowship in endocrinology and diabetes (1995–1999) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow.

Career

Mirmira began his independent career at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2000 as an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics. He became an associate professor in 2005. In 2008, he joined the Indiana University School of Medicine as the Eli Lilly Endowed Professor of Pediatric Diabetes. There, he directed the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (2014–2019), which received NIH P30 funding in 2014, and served as director of the Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research (2017–2019).

In 2019, Mirmira returned to the University of Chicago as professor of medicine and director of the Translational Research Center in the Department of Medicine. He became principal investigator of the university's NIH-funded Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC) in 2023, which was renewed for $6.9 million over five years.

Research

Mirmira's research examines how metabolic and inflammatory stress in pancreatic β-cells triggers pathways that promote autoimmune destruction in T1D. His group demonstrated that endoplasmic reticulum stress in β-cells precedes insulitis in the NOD mouse model of T1D. They identified 12-lipoxygenase as a mediator of β-cell inflammation and macrophage recruitment, providing a target for immunomodulation.

His lab linked polyamine dysregulation to β-cell stress and showed that inhibiting ornithine decarboxylase with DFMO reduces stress signaling and preserves insulin secretion in T1D models. Mirmira has also developed circulating unmethylated INS DNA as a biomarker of β-cell death, now used in clinical trials to monitor T1D progression.

Awards and honors

• Elected member, Association of American Physicians (2025)
• Albert Renold Award, American Diabetes Association (2023)
• Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association (2023)
• Elected member, American Society for Clinical Investigation (2010)
• Max Miller Award for Research in Diabetes, Central Society for Clinical and Translational Research (2016)

External links

• Mirmira Laboratory – University of Chicago
• Raghu G. Mirmira on Google Scholar