Understanding pancreatic beta cell dysfunction in diabetes

Professor Rutter will exploit findings from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and a family of genes that are strongly and selectively inactivated in healthy beta cells but upregulated in these cells in diabetes. His approach will include combining bioinformatic, in vitro and in vivo analyses in model systems to assess the potential of novel GWAS genes as targets to improve insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes. He will also work towards early translation of his work, through high-throughput platforms to identify both endogenous and small molecule regulators of the best-defined GWAS genes.