College of Veterinary Medicine presenting Boshell Distinguished Lecturer March 19
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The College of Veterinary Medicine will host Boshell Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Donald Scott on March 19 at 11 a.m. via Zoom.
Scott will present "Glucose Responsive Transcription Factors in Beta Cells: Friends or Foes" and has a longstanding interest in the molecular mechanisms by which nutrients act to change cellular phenotype.
Cells must adapt to changes in the availability of metabolic fuel by altering networks of genes that control metabolism in a physiologically relevant manner. Scott’s lab works on molecular mechanisms that coordinate how nutrients, especially glucose, alter the regulation of genes to change the phenotype of cells. His work focuses on two glucose-sensing transcription factors, carbohydrate response element binding protein, or ChREBP, and the anabolic transcription factor, c-Myc. He found that ChREBP activity requires the presence of c-Myc and is currently working out the molecular mechanisms of this relationship. In collaboration with colleagues from the Icahn Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute, Scott found that ChREBP is required for glucose-stimulated beta cell proliferation. In more recent studies, he also discovered that Nrf2 plays an important role in beta cell maintenance. This work is funded by the NIH, the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
