Dr. Unger?s lab is best known for its studies of islet physiology, in particular the elucidation of the roles of insulin and glucagon in the regulation of normal blood glucose homeostasis and in the pathogenesis of diabetes, and the establishment of glucagon as a hormone. It also established the ?enteroinsular axis?, and contributed to the physiology of islet somatostatin and the regulation of GLUT-2 expression in beta-cells. Recently his lab has introduced the concept of ?lipotoxicity?, the process by which overaccumulation of lipids in obesity in nonadipose tissues, for example, the pancreatic islets, leads to diabetes and, in other organs, to the metabolic syndrome. His group has demonstrated the role of leptin action in preventing fat-induced islet failure and metabolic syndrome. Dr. Unger has received the Banting Medal of the American Diabetes Association, the Rumbaugh Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Association, the Claude Bernard Medal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and the Koch Award of the Endocrine Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research from 1986 until 2007. He is Professor of Internal Medicine and holds the Touchstone/West Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research.
