Basic Research Faculty
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Laura C. Alonso, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation Term Chair in Diabetes, Director, Beta Cell Biological StudiesInterests: Type 2 diabetes genetics, beta cell generation, and beta cell stress tolerance. Our goal is to understand which pathways guide beta cell proliferation and find approaches to make more beta cells to prevent or treat diabetes.
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Michael A. Brehm, PhD
Associate Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Robert and Sandra Glass Term Chair in DiabetesInterests: Understanding the immune mechanisms that regulate the development of human autoimmune disease. We've developed unique "humanized" mouse models of human immune responses, allowing us to investigate approaches to downregulate as well as activate the human immune system for the treatment of type 1 diabetes as well as potential cancer treatment.
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Silvia Corvera, MD
Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Chair in Diabetes Research, Co-director, MSTP (MD-PhD) ProgramInterests: Understanding the basic physiopathology of type 2 diabetes, specifically the role of adipose tissue physiology in diabetes pathogenesis.
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Michael P. Czech, PhD
Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Isadore and Fannie Foxman Chair of Medical ResearchInterests: Our laboratory is dedicated to the discovery of molecular mechanisms whereby insulin signaling regulates energy homeostasis. This includes RNAi screens, digital imaging and TIRF microscopy, phenotyping mice with gene knockouts and analysis of human adipose tissues. We hope to translate our findings to the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.
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Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS
Professor and Chair, Program in Molecular Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the National Academy of Sciences , H. Arthur Smith Chair in Biomedical ResearchInterests: The molecular mechanism by which inflammation contributes to diabetes, cancer and stroke. Our studies of stress signaling pathways have led to the discovery of new genes that contribute to the development of diabetes and other diseases.
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Dale L. Greiner, PhD
Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Co-director, Diabetes Center of Excellence, Dr. Eileen L. Berman and Stanley I. Berman Foundation Chair in Biomedical ResearchInterests: Human immune responses, both how to turn them off for the treatment of type 1 diabetes and autoimmunity and conversely, to use the same pathways to turn the immune response on for the treatment of cancer. We utilize our unique animal models of human immune responses for investigating these approaches to downregulate as well as activate the human immune system.
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David A. Guertin, PhD
Associate Professor, Program in Molecular MedicineInterests: Understanding how insulin resistance develops, especially in obesity and lipodystrophy. Identifying therapeutic strategies to improve how the body processes blood sugar (glucose). Exploring the biochemical mechanisms controlling cell growth and metabolism and their significance to the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes.
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David M. Harlan, MD
Professor, Department of Medicine, Chief, Diabetes Division, Co-director, Diabetes Center of Excellence, William and Doris Krupp Chair in DiabetesInterests: Exploring beta cell biology and the anti-beta cell immune response underlying type 1 diabetes. We've developed innovative techniques to sort human pancreatic islet endocrine cell subsets, including from donors with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, to determine the transcriptome from those purified cells. We're also working to develop better diabetes care delivery models.
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Sally C. Kent, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of MedicineInterests: Autoimmune response in human type 1 diabetes. In particular, T cell responses to self-proteins. We want to understand how and why these immune cells are attacking the insulin producing beta cells in people with T1D.
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Jason K. Kim, PhD
Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Director, UMass Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping CenterInterests: Our research investigates obesity, diabetes and its complications. The goal of our research is to understand how obesity causes diabetes and to find its cure.
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Hardy Kornfeld, MD
Professor, Department of MedicineInterests: The impact of diabetes and hyperlipidemia on Tuberculosis defense
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Yunsheng Ma, MD, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Department of MedicineInterests: Prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, as well as racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence, incidence, treatment, medical and survival outcomes among diabetic patients.
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René Maehr, PhD
Associate Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine, Glass Charitable Foundation Term Chair in DiabetesInterests: The molecular pathways that govern thymus organogenesis and function, and to translate this knowledge to stem cell approaches to recapitulate and investigate human immune syndromes associated with this organ, including type 1 diabetes.
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Louis M. Messina, MD
Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, Johnnie Ray Cox Term Chair in Biomedical ResearchInterests: Identifying the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate collateral artery enlargement in order to develop new treatment paradigms for patients with peripheral artery disease.
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John P. Mordes, MD
Professor, Department of MedicineInterests: Basic and clinical research in the area of type 1 diabetes.
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Amy K. Walker, PhD
Associate Professor, Program in Molecular MedicineInterests: Investigating links between metabolism and cellular function potentially contributing to diabetes and other human metabolic disorders. We study how metabolites act as signals to control gene expression and lipid accumulation
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Jennifer P. Wang, MD
Associate Professor, Department of MedicineInterests: How innate immune responses contribute to autoimmune disease processes, in particular how activation of inflammatory pathways and type I interferon can lead to type 1 diabetes
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Yong-Xu Wang, PhD
Associate Professor, Program in Molecular MedicineInterests: Brown fat development and browning of white fat. We particularly focus on transcriptional control, epigenetics, non-coding RNAs, and signaling molecules.
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Chaoxing Yang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Program in Molecular MedicineInterests: Developing a non-invasive screening system for early type 1 diabetes risk assessment. We are working to identify T1D-specific biomarkers, elucidate the mechanism of T1D initiation and progression during the early asymptomatic stage of the disease.
