Welcome to the Stoffers Lab

The Stoffers laboratory is a basic biomedical research group at the University of Pennsylvania, encompassing clinical and basic postdoctoral fellows, MD, MD-PhD and PhD graduate students, and undergraduates, all striving to understand the development, maintenance and regeneration of pancreatic islet beta cells that produce the hormone insulin so critically required for normal glucose homeostasis. 

Our Goal

To understand pancreatic islet biology in the context of human health and disease.

Our Focus

Our long-standing focus on the homeodomain transcription factor and human diabetes gene Pdx1 has positioned Pdx1 as a critical component of the transcriptional networks of endocrine progenitors and mature beta cells, resulting in fundamental observations of translational relevance to all forms of diabetes. 

Our Approach

We use genomic and proteomic approaches integrated with genetic mouse models and primary human islet investigations to define the partners of PDX1 and its downstream transcriptional targets.  The exploration of PDX1 partners and targets takes us into new areas including mechanistic investigations of beta cell development, metabolism and postnatal cell survival.

Our Principal Investigator 

Doris A. Stoffers, M.D., Ph.D.

Sylvan H. Eisman Professor of Medicine

Director, Islet Cell Biology Core, Penn Diabetes Research Center Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Director, Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism T32 training grant (Co-Director, Dr. Anne Cappola)

Director, Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program, Diabetes Research Center (DRC), University of Pennsylvania

Graduate Group Affiliations: 

• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Pharmacology