Susan Bonner-Weir
 Susan Bonner-WeirJoslin Diabetes Center
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Research Summary
Prior to these studies adult beta-cells were thought to be a static population and without active growth, but with these models Dr. Bonner-Weir provided compelling evidence that adult pancreatic beta-cell mass increases in response to a metabolic need. Her evidence of involution or selective cell death (apoptosis) that occurs when metabolic needs decrease also has contributed to the concept of a beta-cell mass that can be regulated by functional demand. The overall beta-cell mass is the result of the balance of cell renewal (replication and neogenesis) and cell death, but since it is not possible yet to quantitate all these processes, Dr. Bonner-Weir and colleagues developed a mathematical model for estimating the contributions of cell death and neogenesis. Using transgenic and knock out models, she has been able to show that failure to expand the beta-cell mass adequately to compensate for increased insulin resistance or impaired beta-cell function results in diabetes.
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Bio-Sketch
Dr. Susan Bonner-Weir is Senior Investigator, Joslin Diabetes Center and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. She graduated from Rice University and received her PhD in biology from Case Western Reserve University. For over twenty-fiveyears she has focused on the endocrine pancreas (the islets of Langerhans) in three areas: 1) the architecture of the islet and its implications for function; 2) the in vivo regulation of beta-cell mass; and 3) the factors involved in islet growth and differentiation. Her focus now is how to make a reliable source of new beta-cells. She has published over 130 peer reviewed papers, and numerous chapters and reviews. Dr. Bonner-Weir has served on research grant review panels for the NIH, American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Danish National Research Council, and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and on the editorial boards of Endocrinology, American Journal of Physiology, Diabetes, Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics, Cell Transplantation, and Journal of Biological Chemistry.
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