Ernesto Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D.

Washington University
School of Medicine

Dept. of Medicine
Div. of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Lipid Research
Box 8127
660 S. Euclid Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63110

tel: (314) 362-8685
fax: (314) 747-2692
email: ebernal@im.wustl.edu
web: Personal Weblink

 

 

RESEARCH INTEREST

For the past six years my work has focused in the study of signaling pathways that regulate growth of islet beta-cells. This work identified Akt as a major regulator of beta-cell mass. The future of my research laboratory will be focused in the study the molecular mechanisms involved in cell cycle, apoptosis, pancreas development, differentiation and function of beta-cells.

A second area of interest is islet transplantation. One potential approach to improve the success and overcome the limited source of islets for transplantation is to increase the capacity of islets to proliferate and resist injury. The main goal in this area will be to study the mechanisms involved in regulation of transplanted beta-cell mass and to generate beta-cells that could be maintained in culture and will be resistant to injury after transplantation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1. Bernal-Mizrachi E *, Fatrai S, Johnson JD, Ohsugi M, Otani K, Han Z, Polonsky KS, and Permutt MA. Defective insulin secretion and increased susceptibility to experimental diabetes are induced by reduced Akt activity in pancreatic islet beta cells. J Clin Invest. 2004 Oct;114(7):928-36.

2. Bernal-Mizrachi E*, Wen W, Stahlhut S, Welling C, Permutt MA: Transgenic Mice Expressing a Constitutively Active Akt1/PKB in Pancreatic Islet b-cells Exhibit Striking Hypertrophy, Hyperplasia, and Hyperinsulinemia. J of Clin Invest 2001; 108(11): 1631-1638.