Ali Shilleh

I was born in Serbia and grew up in Ramallah, Palestine. In 2014 I completed my B.S in biochemistry at UMass Boston in Boston, MA. I received my M.S in Nutrition and Biomedicine in 2016 from the Technical University of Munich in Munich, Germany. I conducted my master’s thesis in Dr. Henrietta Uhlenhaut’s lab at the Institute of Diabetes and Obesity at Helmholtz Zentrum studying the role of TR2 and TR4 in glucose homeostasis and lipid metabolism. I then worked as a research assistant for 9 months at Dr. Holger Russ’s Lab at the Barbara Davis centre, University of Colorado Anschutz Campus, and joined the same lab as a PhD student in 2017. My work at the Russ Lab focused on determining the fate of primary human beta cells and stem cell derived beta-like cells (sBC) upon transplantation. These studies were geared toward improving sBC survival in vivo and promote cell therapy for T1D treatment. Recently, I joined the Hodsquad as a Novo Nordisk postdoctoral fellow to further understand GLP1R signaling in beta cells and explore the potential use of GL1R agonists for gene therapy applications for T2D diabetic patients. In my free time I love to ski (especially in Oxford), rock climb, hike, run, walk his dog (Crni) and travel with his partner and daughter.