Danielle Dean, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, has received the Robert L. Sorenson Young Investigator Award from the Midwest Islet Club (MIC) in recognition of her research excellence and innovation in the field of islet research.
Dean, who is also an assistant professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, is a faculty member of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research Center.
She came to VUMC in 2017 for a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular endocrinology in the laboratory of Alvin C. Powers, MD, Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science and director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center. She established her independent laboratory two years later.
While much research effort has been focused on understanding insulin-producing beta cell biology because of insulin’s well-known role in diabetes, little is known about signals regulating other islet cells. Pancreatic alpha cells secrete the hormone glucagon in response to hypoglycemia (reduced blood glucose), but people with diabetes have hyperglucagonemia contributing to hyperglycemia (high glucose levels).
To better understand the molecular mechanisms that determine alpha cell mass in the pancreatic islet, Dean identified a liver-alpha cell axis (LACA), a crosstalk between liver glucagon signaling and alpha cell sensing of amino acids. Her lab is working to understand how the LACA regulates islet cell growth and how it might contribute to liver and alpha cell dysfunction in obesity and diabetes.
“We are delighted that Danielle has received a Robert L. Sorenson Young Investigator Award,” said Nancy Carrasco, MD, Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science and chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. “She has been greatly pushing forward our understanding of the biology of alpha cells and of the roles played by glucagon in physiology and in the pathophysiology of diabetes and other diseases.
“She exemplifies the creativity, inquisitiveness and tenacity that a scientist needs to both shed light on the workings of nature and pave the way to better treatments for disease. She has been dedicated to increasing knowledge related to the cell biology of alpha cells and the role of glucagon in diabetes and other disease processes.”
MIC meetings are held to encourage greater communication and interaction between junior and senior pancreatic islet cell biology researchers in the Midwest region. At the 2024 MIC meeting, Dean gave a presentation on her work and received the award. The award is named in honor of Robert Sorenson, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. Sorenson is renowned for his contributions to the study of diabetes and islet biology during pregnancy.
Dean received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee in biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology. There she worked in the lab of Ranjan Ganguly, PhD. Dean then received her PhD in molecular and systems pharmacology from Emory University where she was a toxicology scholar in the lab of Gary Miller, PhD.
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