Roles
Assistant Professor
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Biography
Dr. Villarino was born in Caracas, Venezuela and emigrated to the United States at age 5. Both his primarily and secondary education took place in New Jersey, culminating in a bachelor’s degree from Drew University. His interest in cytokine biology began as a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Hunter at the University of Pennsylvania. There, he first encountered their double-edged nature; at once necessary to protect against infection and capable of instigating lethal damage. He then transitioned to a postdoctoral appointment in the laboratory of Dr. Abul Abbas at the University of California San Francisco, where he continued study cytokines, now in the context of autoimmune disease. This shift provided a new vantage on cytokines and led him to discover a critical role for post-transcriptional silencing in limiting pathogenic cytokine responses. At that time, he also witnessed the advent of next generation sequencing and decided that it would become central to his work. Thus, he next joined the laboratory of Dr. John O’Shea at the National Institutes of Health where he was immersed in bioinformatics-driven cytokine research. That move enabled impactful discoveries on how Jak-STAT signaling propagates cytokine function and, crucially, armed him with the skills necessary to pursue that type of research in his own laboratory, founded in January 2020 within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Befitting his training, he has since established a research group to study mechanisms and consequences of cytokine signaling, focusing on autoimmune and metastatic diseases. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
Whether through one-on-one interactions, group meetings or seminars, every day in the laboratory brings new opportunities to teach and learn. Having trained in leading academic and government institutes, I am versed in this type of education and now strive to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment in my laboratory and to positively impact scientific discourse within my department, university and the greater research community. I will also dedicate myself to the classroom and, specifically, to developing effective, knowledge-centered curricula that impress foundational concepts while challenging students with cutting edge content and inquiry-based problem solving.
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Research Interests
The Villarino lab studies how immune cells communicate to mediate health and disease. Specifically, they integrate applied and computational approaches to study cytokines, a class of secreted proteins that transmit information from one cell to another, and downstream signaling via the Jak-STAT pathway. The ultimate goal of their research is to discover new principles of cytokine signaling that can be applied towards better understanding of infectious, autoimmune and metastatic disease, as well as rational design of cytokine- and STAT-targeting therapeutics. -
Publications
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Copyrights & Patents
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Professional Activities
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