Cells are natural environmental sensors, and can respond to a diverse variety of chemicals, including sugars, salts, hormones and even therapeutic pharmaceuticals. When cells stop responding to their environment appropriately, disease can start. For example, resistance to insulin signals is a hallmark of Type 2 diabetes. Our mission is to understand how living cells communicate with their environment, and what happens when they stop. Currently, our research focuses on how fundamental changes in the cell biology of environmental sensing relate to the origins of human diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

The Rizzo lab is located in downtown Baltimore at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, conveniently located next to the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards.