Luis Sarmiento, Ph.D., is a virologist with a marked interest in understanding how virus-host interactions contribute to the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. He holds a B.S. in Microbiology (1995) and a Ph.D. in Health Science with an emphasis on virology (2008) from Havana University. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Immunovirology at the Uppsala and Lund University in Sweden, studying mechanisms and pathways critically involved in virus-induced beta cell damage and type 1 diabetes. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Immunovirology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University.

From 1995 to 2013, he worked as a Public Health Research Scientist at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), the national reference center for medical virology and infectious diseases in Cuba, and a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center. Throughout his time at IPK, he was deeply involved in the monitoring and control of viral infectious diseases with responsibility for all laboratory aspects of an outbreak investigation, including diagnostics, molecular epidemiology, population immunity, clinical trials for vaccines, and antivirals. He has supported the WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative through training and technical consultation for partners in the Global Polio Laboratory Network. He has also performed studies to understand the evolution and molecular basis of the pathogenesis and transmission of enterovirus, adenovirus, respiratory syncytial, and influenza viruses.

In 2013, he joined Professor Corrado Cilio's group at the Lund University Diabetes Center. It allowed him to continue pursuing basic research to understand further how viruses may influence type 1 diabetes etiology. Current priorities include studies to elucidate crosstalk mechanisms between viral infection, pancreatic beta cells, and the immune system. Undoubtedly, this would significantly advance our understanding of the role of viruses in the pathogenesis of severe autoimmune diabetes.