School of Medicine
Showing 1-4 of 4 Results
-
Pankaj Kapahi
Professor (Research) of Medicine (Endocrinology)
BioPankaj Kapahi is a Professor and aging researcher whose laboratory seeks to understand why organisms age and why the rate and consequences of aging differ so dramatically between individuals, sexes, and species. The lab approaches aging through the lens of evolution, asking how pathways that evolved to optimize growth, reproduction, and survival early in life can shape health and disease later in life.
A major focus of the laboratory is the interaction between nutrition, metabolism, reproduction, and aging. The lab has helped define how nutrient-sensing pathways, including TOR, dietary restriction, circadian biology, and metabolic adaptation regulate lifespan and age-related disease. More recently, this work has expanded to reproductive aging and the Reproductive Resilience Hypothesis, the idea that evolutionary pressures linking reproductive success to prolonged survival, repeated reproduction, and caregiving may have selected for biological programs that simultaneously support reproduction and somatic resilience.
Using comparative and experimental approaches across flies, worms, mice, and humans, the lab studies how these evolutionarily conserved programs influence brain aging, neurodegeneration, metabolic disease, reproductive aging, cell senescence, and resilience. The broader philosophy of the laboratory is that aging is best understood not as an isolated biological program, but as an emergent consequence of the evolutionary trade-offs among reproduction, nutrition, growth, maintenance, and survival. -
Seung K. Kim M.D., Ph.D.
KM Mulberry Professor, Professor of Developmental Biology, of Medicine (Endocrinology) and, by courtesy, of Pediatrics (Endocrinology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPancreatic islets are essential for human health. We study the development and function of islet cells using modern methods in several model systems, including mice, pigs, human pancreas, primates, embryonic stem cells, and fruit flies. We have discovered critical factors required for islet development and mature islet cell function. These approaches have informed efforts to generate replacement islets, and provide immune protection of transplanted islets for diabetes.
-
Sun Kim, M.D. M.S.
Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are interested in studying the pathophysiological processes that contribute to glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. My current research focuses on characterizing pancreatic beta-cell function in populations with significant insulin resistance and vulnerability to developing diabetes: individuals with schizophrenia, morbid obesity, and history of gestational diabetes.
-
Fredric Kraemer
Gerald M. Reaven, MD, Professor of Endocrinology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research interests are in the general area of cellular lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. The work is aimed primarily at understanding the mechanisms regulating cholesterol and triglyceride accumulation in cells. We utilize a variety of techniques from cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology.