Ele Ferrannini is Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Pisa School of Medicine; Chief of the Metabolism Unit of the CNR (National Research Council) Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa; and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Diabetes Division, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, USA

His professional education includes: degree in Medicine (cum laude, at the University of Pisa School of Medicine, 1975); Specialty Board Certification in Nuclear Medicine (cum laude, at the University of Pisa) and Diabetes&Metabolic Disease (cum laude, at the University of Torino, 1978); Visiting Scientist at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (1977-78); and NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine (1978-1982). 

He has published over 400 original papers in the field of diabetes, metabolism and hypertension, and several reviews and textbook chapters.

He is a member of several scientific societies, a founding member of the Italian Society of Obesity for which he has been President, has served on the Executive Council of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) for which he has been elected President in September 2004, and has been the Editor-in-Chief of the official Journal of EASD (Diabetologia, 1994-1997). He is the Chairman of the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance and a member of the EASD Foundation.

Current research areas are: insulin resistance and atherosclerosis; impact of oxidative stress and high blood pressure on endothelial function; pathogenesis of the fasting hyperglycaemia of diabetes; autoimmunity in adult-onset diabetes; pathophysiology of insulin secretion; impact of hyperinsulinaemia on autonomic nervous system function; pathogenesis of the insulin, resistance and hyperinsulinism in obesity, and effects of weight loss; coronary atherosclerosis in diabetes; pathogenesis of the microvascular dysfunction and proteinuria in adult-onset diabetes.