I am Director of the Diabetes Research and Training Center at the University of Chicago. I am clinically trained as an endocrinologist, and my research work from the inception of my PhD training has focused on diabetes pathogenesis and treatment. My laboratory currently focuses on the regulation of gene transcription during pancreatic islet development, function, and survival. The projects in my laboratory fall into three main categories: (1) the role of homeodomain transcription factors, basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, and PPAR-gamma during the development of islets and the pathogenesis of islet dysfunction in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, (2) the interrelationships between chromatin structure and gene transcription in the mature islet, and (3) the role of post-transcriptional mechanisms in cytokine-mediated islet dysfunction. Intervening at any of these three stages in the islet life-cycle (development, function, and survival) may allow for the development of new sources of islets for the treatment of diabetes. Toward this effort, my lab has also engaged in translational work that would bring new therapies developed by us or our collaborators into the clinic to treat patients with type 1 diabetes. These areas of research include bench and bedside testing of new inhibitors of the islet inflammatory intermediates (including 12-lipoxygenase, ornithine decarboxylase)