Ekaterine Berishvili obtained her MD and PhD degrees in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1999 and 2003. Between 2003 and 2014, she held research fellow and visiting professor positions at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami (Prof. Camillo Ricordi) and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York (Prof. Sanjeev Gupta). She was promoted associate professor at Tbilisi State Medical University (2008-2014) and is currently holding an associate professorship at Ilia State University, in Tbilisi. She has been working as a scientific collaborator in the department of surgery at the University of Geneva since 2014, and was appointed in 2020 as a leader of research group of Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration in the Department of Surgery.

Research aims

Her scientific interest is focused on development of innovative cell-based therapies for type 1 diabetes, combining the principles of tissue bioengineering and surgical sciences to create bio-artificial organs. She is developing three-dimensional (3D) tissue models, which accurately mimic the native organ and have potential for biomedical applications. Such models could provide powerful platforms for studying tissue development and homeostasis and for modeling diseases. More recently, she has been generating multicellular islet organoids, biological scaffolds and hydrogels, as components of a matrix for cell and tissue growth. The ultimate aim is to engineer a bio-artificial pancreas, with significant advantages in engraftment, vascularization and viability of the graft. To work toward achieving this objective, she has built a scientific consortium with European universities and corporate partners, funded by the H2020 program. She is also a member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) beta cell replacement consortium and holds a JDRF research grant for the development of a bio- artificial endocrine pancreas from decellularized human placenta.

Current grants

European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes

Role: Principal Investigator; 01/03/19-01/03/21                 € 90,000.-

Amount allocated to my group: € 90,000.

VANGUARD 874700, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Brussels, BE.                 

Role: Coordinator, Lead PI; 01/01/20-31/12/24 €6,844,625.00.-

Amount allocated to my group: €1, 995, 946. 25

2020: Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation-  

Role: Principal Investigator: 01/03/20-28/02/2023           US$ 894,044.57.-

Amount allocated to my group: US$ 744, 044.57