Diabetes is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, and obesity is the major risk factor for this disease. As our population increasingly relies on energy-dense high calorie food and limits energy expenditure, more of the population will become obese, insulin resistant, and eventually diabetic. The gravity of this situation is underscored by the complexity of treating this disease due both to inadequate insulin production as well as tissue insulin resistance.

Since the first patient was treated with purified bovine insulin in 1922, our understanding of diabetes and insulin resistance has continued to expand. Although we can now treat patients with recombinant human insulin, short and fast acting insulin analogs and many oral anti-diabetic drugs, we still have much to learn about why diabetes occurs and how to effectively treat it. To this end, my work in the diabetes field investigates possible causes, treatments and molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance by examining the effect of free-fatty acid treatment on glucose transport in the adipocyte, developing and evaluating a photolabile insulin pro-drug, and determining the roles of the pseudokinase TRB3, and the kinase PKCλ in the insulin signaling pathway in the adipocyte. With time and considerably more research, diabetes may one day become a curable disease.