Melanie Shapiro, Ph.D.
Diabetes Immunology
Assistant Professor of Diabetes Immunology
As leader of the Melanie Shapiro Laboratory in the Department of Diabetes Immunology, Dr. Melanie Shapiro focuses on designing and conducting leading-edge research into the genetics of type 1 diabetes and the disease’s response to immunotherapies. In a hybrid wet/dry lab environment, Dr. Shapiro’s team uses bioinformatics to identify genetic variants of interest and validate their functional impact on immune cells and pancreatic beta cells. This allows her team to study germline genetic variants that may predict a type 1 diabetes patient’s response to immunotherapies, as well as somatic variants in the pancreas and immune cells of organ donors with type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Shapiro earned her doctorate in biomedical sciences, immunology and microbiology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she also completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine under the guidance of Drs. Todd Brusko and Mark Atkinson. Her doctoral work focused on the use of serum biomarkers to predict type 1 diabetes and to clarify the function of a candidate gene in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. In her postdoctoral fellowship, she examined how precision medicine genotyping microarray data may help investigate the role of type 1 diabetes risk loci in promoting immune phenotypes associated with the disease’s pathogenesis and loci that modulate individual response to therapeutics, with the goal of suspending or preventing type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Shapiro’s work has been recognized with multiple honors, including the Young Investigator Award, presented by the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes, and a best poster award from the Immunology of Diabetes Society Bruges. She is an author or co-author of more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles in her field.
Location
Duarte Cancer Center
Duarte, CA 91010
Education & Experience
Education
2025, Postdoctoral Associate, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2020, Ph.D., University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2015, B.S., University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Experience
2025-Present, Assistant Professor, Department of Diabetes Immunology, City of Hope, Duarte, CA
Research
As leader of the Melanie Shapiro Laboratory in the Department of Diabetes Immunology, Dr. Shapiro focuses on designing and conducting leading-edge research into the genetics of type 1 diabetes and the disease’s response to immunotherapies.
Awards & Memberships
- 2024, Best Poster Award, Immunology of Diabetes Society Bruges
- 2024, Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) Young Investigator Award
- 2021, Sugar Science Bioinformatics D-Challenge Finalist
- 2021, Best Novel Insights Paper Award, Hormone Research in Pediatrics
- 2011, Diabetes Scholars Foundation Scholarship Recipient
- 2010, National Merit Commended Scholar
Publications
- Seeley-Fallen MK, Liu LJ, Shapiro MR, Onabajo OO, Palaniyandi S, Zhu X, Tan TH, Upadhyaya A, Song W. Actin-binding protein 1 links B-cell antigen receptors to negative signaling pathways. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jul 8;111(27):9881-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1321971111. Epub 2014 Jun 23. PubMed PMID: 24958882; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4103327.
- Graves CL, Li J, LaPato M, Shapiro MR, Glover SC, Wallet MA, Wallet SM. Intestinal Epithelial Cell Regulation of Adaptive Immune Dysfunction in Human Type 1 Diabetes. Front Immunol. 2017 Jan 10;7:679. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2016.00679. eCollection 2016. PubMed PMID: 28119693; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5222791.
- Futch HS, McFarland KN, Moore BD, Kuhn MZ, Giasson BI, Ladd TB, Scott KA, Shapiro MR, Nosacka RL, Goodwin MS, Ran Y, Cruz PE, Ryu DH, Croft CL, Levites Y, Janus C, Chakrabarty P, Judge AR, Brusko TM, de Kloet AD, Krause EG, Golde TE. An anti-CRF antibody suppresses the HPA axis and reverses stress-induced phenotypes. J Exp Med. 2019 Nov 4;216(11):2479-2491. doi: 10.1084/jem.20190430. Epub 2019 Aug 29. PubMed PMID: 31467037; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6829597.
- Shapiro MR, Foster TP, Perry DJ, Rosenfeld RG, Dauber A, McNichols JA, Muir A, Hwa V, Brusko TM, Jacobsen LM. A Novel Mutation in Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Receptor (c.641-2A>G) Is Associated with Impaired Growth, Hypoglycemia, and Modified Immune Phenotypes. Horm Res Paediatr. 2020;93(5):322-334. doi: 10.1159/000510764. Epub 2020 Oct 28. PMID: 33113547; PMCID: PMC7726096.
- Shapiro MR, Wasserfall CH, McGrail SM, Posgai AL, Bacher R, Muir A, Haller MJ, Schatz DA, Wesley JD, von Herrath M, Hagopian WA, Speake C, Atkinson MA, Brusko TM. Insulin-Like Growth Factor Dysregulation Both Preceding and Following Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis. Diabetes. 2020 Mar;69(3):413-423. doi: 10.2337/db19-0942. Epub 2019 Dec 11. PubMed PMID: 31826866; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7034187.
- Shapiro MR, Yeh W, Longfield JR, Gallagher J, Infante CM, Wellford S, Posgai AL, Atkinson MA, Campbell-Thompson M, Lieberman SM, Serreze DV, Geurts AM, Chen Y, Brusko TM. CD226 Deletion Reduces Type 1 Diabetes in the NOD Mouse by Impairing Thymocyte Development and Peripheral T Cell Activation. Front Immunol. 2020 Sep 4;11:2180. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.02180. PMID: 33013915; PMCID: PMC7500101.
- Brown ME, Peters LD, Hanbali SR, Arnoletti JM, Sachs LK, Nguyen KQ, Carpenter EB, Seay HR, Fuhrman CA, Posgai AL, Shapiro MR, Brusko TM. Human CD4+CD25+CD226- Tregs Demonstrate Increased Purity, Lineage Stability, and Suppressive Capacity Versus CD4+CD25+CD127lo/- Tregs for Adoptive Cell Therapy. Front Immunol. 2022 May 26;13:873560. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.873560. PMID: 35693814; PMCID: PMC9178079.
- Perry DJ*, Shapiro MR*, Chamberlain SW, Kusmartseva I, Chamala S, Balzano-Nogueira L, Yang M, Brant JO, Brusko M, Williams MD, McGrail KM, McNichols J, Peters LD, Posgai AL, Kaddis JS, Mathews CE, Wasserfall CH, Webb-Robertson BM, Campbell-Thompson M, Schatz D, Evans-Molina C, Pugliese A, Concannon P, Anderson MS, German MS, Chamberlain CE, Atkinson MA, Brusko TM. A genomic data archive from the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes. Sci Data. 2023 May 26;10(1):323. doi: 10.1038/s41597-023-02244-6. PMID: 37237059; PMCID: PMC10219990.
*contributed equally. - Shapiro MR, Dong X, Perry DJ, McNichols JM, Thirawatananond P, Posgai AL, Peters L, Motwani K, Musca RS, Muir A, Concannon P, Jacobsen LM, Mathews CE, Wasserfall CH, Haller MJ, Schatz DA, Atkinson MA, Brusko MA, Bacher RL, Brusko TM. Human immune phenotyping reveals accelerated aging in type 1 diabetes. JCI Insight. 2023 Sep 8;8(17):e170767. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.170767. PMID: 37498686; PMCID: PMC10544250.
- Shapiro MR, Peters LD, Brown ME, Cabello-Kindelan C, Posgai AL, Bayer AL, Brusko TM. Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Synergizes with IL-2 to Induce Homeostatic Proliferation of Regulatory T cells. J Immunol. 2023 Oct 1;211(7):1108-1122. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2200651. PMID: 37594278; PMCID: PMC10511790.