Professor Francesco Rubino

Professor Francesco Rubino is Chair of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London. He specialises in laparoscopic bariatric, metabolic and upper digestive surgery, including gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric banding and novel procedures. He is recognised internationally for his practice, research and teaching of metabolic, diabetes and bariatric (weight-loss) surgery.

Professor Rubino undertook his MD and residence in general surgery at the  The Gemelli University Hospital  in Rome, Italy. He the  completed Fellowships in laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery at the European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France, Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York and at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.  Following this he became Chief of Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery and Director of the Diabetes Surgery Centre at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York. In 2013 he was appointed to King’s College Hospital.

In 2006, a study performed by Professor Runio showed that the anti-diabetes effect of certain bariatric procedures, particularly gastric bypass surgery, results from mechanisms beyond weight loss. This evidence provided a scientific rationale for surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes, including less obese patients. His findings show the role of the gastrointestinal tract in the pathophysiology of diabetes and obesity.

Professor Rubino organized and co-directed the Diabetes Surgery Summit (DSS), an influential international consensus conference that has recognized gastrointestinal surgery as a standard-of-care treatment option for type 2 diabetes.  Guidelines from this summit were published in Diabetes Care in June 2016 with the endorsement of 47 international scientific societies.  A number of scientific journals, such as Nature, highlighted how the formal recognition of surgery as a standard treatment for diabetes showed a significant change in the management and outlook of the disease  

He has authored over 100 publications in scientific journals and is regularly invited to speak at both national and international conferences. He also served as Congress Director for the first three editions of the World Congresses on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes first in New York City and London.