Bruce Verchere

PhD

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Director, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics
Childhood Diabetes Laboratories, BC Children’s Hospital
Irving K Barber Chair in Diabetes Research

In diabetes mellitus the pancreas' insulin-producing beta cells have impaired function or are destroyed, resulting in deficient insulin secretion. This leads to high blood glucose levels and later complications, including kidney disease and blindness. In type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes the patient's own immune system kills the beta cells. In type 2 (adult onset) diabetes, the body is less sensitive to insulin produced, and the beta cells cannot secrete enough insulin to compensate. Over time, insulin secretion declines, probably due to a progressive loss of beta cells from the toxic effects of elevated blood glucose as well as the accumulation of protein-containing deposits called islet amyloid. We are trying to understand how beta cells normally function and why they are dysfunctional and/or are destroyed in both types of diabetes. We hope to devise new ways to protect beta cells, thereby slowing or preventing disease onset, and to enhance beta cell survival following transplantation of pancreatic islets into diabetic patients.