Professor Gian Franco Bottazzo

Gian Bottazzo obtained his MD from the University of Padua in 1971, completed his post-graduate studies in Allergology and Immunology at the University of Florence in 1974 and obtained a Diploma in endocrinology from the University of Padua in 1979. He held several medical and scientific positions, mostly in London. He was a member of the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) and the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom (RCP). Professor Bottazzo was the Director of the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and Disease Laboratory of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London.

Over several decades, Professor Bottazzo carried out extensive research on autoimmune diseases, particularly diabetes. He discovered islet cell antibodies (ICA) in 1974. A world authority on diabetes, he discovered the association between type 1 diabetes and the development of antibodies directed against the insulin secreting beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Thereafter, he demonstrated antigens relating to the HLA system, which controls the body’s immune defenses, on the surface of damaged beta cells. The discovery of the link between a patient’s genetic make-up and the development of autoimmunity to the islet’s beta cells had opened the door for new approaches to the prevention of diabetes mellitus.

In a landmark paper published in 1974, Professor Bottazzo and his colleagues showed that type I diabetes was associated with the development of antibodies directed against the insulin-producing B cells of the pancreas. This pioneering discovery opened the way to a flood of investigations in the study of autoimmunity as a basic cause of failure, not only of the islet cells of the pancreas leading to type I diabetes mellitus, but also the loss of other endocrine-producing cells such as those in the thyroid and pituitary glands.

Professor Bottazzo also demonstrated the presence of HLA-DR antigens on the surface of the B cells in the early stage of type I diabetes mellitus. This link between the genetic background of the sufferer and the development of autoimmunity has once more opened up a new field of exploration that may lead to a new approach to the prevention of diabetes mellitus and perhaps its treatment.

Professor Bottazzo’s distinguished contributions to diabetes research were recognized by several honors. He authored more than 500 papers in major journals and scientific conferences for Diabetes mellitus for his research on autoimmunity as a major cause of type 1 (insulin- dependent) diabetes.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.