Dr. Franz Matschinsky serves as core director and he is involved in all aspects of the operation of the core in accordance with the general principles of operating DRC core facilities. He sets priorities and makes job assignments. He closely interacts with users to achieve the highest benefits for them and the highest scientific standards of the work to be conducted.

Dr. Nicolai Doliba serves as the technical director. He is responsible for operating the Ca 2+, NAD(P)H imaging setup, maintaining and operating the system for optical analysis of O 2 consumption, participating also in the development of a more sensitive instrument. He participates in the planning of all islet studies that require the above approaches and supervises or performs many of the actual measurements. He also does cell work involving NMR technology. He is aided by Dr. C. Li (fully supported by Dr. Charles Stanley from Children’s Hospital). Drs. Doliba and Li are going to establish the isolated rat and mouse pancreas, methods previously operative in Dr. Matschinsky’s laboratory as documented by many publications. This team also does the 13C-and 31P-NMR studies using islet cell lines.

Carol Buettger: Ms. Buettger is a Senior Research Specialist with more than 40 years of experience who masters all technical aspects of tissue culture, in this particular case of culturing and maintaining stock of an extensive collection islet cell lines, of culturing islets, of performing hormone release assays with a multi well plate test with alpha- and beta-cell lines and GLUTag cells releasing GLP-1. She knows how to generate pseudo islets by incorporating cells into agarose beads.

Habiba Najafi: Mrs. Najafi leads the islet cell isolation team and has worked in the FMM laboratory for 20 years, with an outstanding track record of isolating islets with the collagenase procedure, is an accomplished tissue culture technician and masters all physiological and biochemical procedures used to assess islet function. This includes measurements of glucose, glutamine, fatty acid, leucine and KIC metabolism using 14C or Tritium labeled substrate.

Qin Wei: Mrs. Wei masters all procedures associated with islet cell isolation, culture and functional testing. She works closely with the other members of the team such that the group is capable of isolating and processing larger batches of rat or mouse islets in the shortest possible time when needed for certain projects.