Dr. Francesca Galbiati is an endocrinologist who cares for patients with diseases involving the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, including pituitary tumors, acromegaly, Cushing's disease, prolactin-secreting tumors, hypopituitarism, arginine-vasopressin deficiency (formerly known as central diabetes insipidus), and hypothalamic obesity. She specializes in diagnosing and treating pituitary tumors and hormonal deficiencies resulting from surgery, radiation, and pituitary inflammatory diseases.
Galbiati earned her medical degree at the University of Milano-Bicocca's School of Medicine and Surgery. She completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a clinical and research fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Galbiati's research focuses on understanding how hormones produced by the hypothalamus and posterior pituitary gland affect the brain and other organs. An alumna of the Lawson Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she has worked as a co-investigator on clinical trials studying the effects of the hormone oxytocin on the mental health and quality of life of patients with obesity and arginine-vasopressin deficiency. She has also worked on developing a diagnostic test for oxytocin deficiency. In addition, she studies the role the hormone vasopressin has in eating behavior in adults with obesity and in metabolic changes after bariatric surgery, identifying potential treatment targets for metabolic syndrome. Her goal is to advance understanding of the hypothalamic-pituitary system function in disease, aging and under stress.
Outside the clinic, Galbiati enjoys doing yoga and biking.