Patrick MacDonald

Our main interests lie in understanding the mechanisms that control hormone release from the endocrine pancreatic islets of Langerhans, and how this is disrupted in diabetes. We study the control of both insulin and glucagon secretion, with a particular interest in elucidating the signaling mechanisms that control key ion channels and exocytotic processes responsible for secretion. We have a major interest in asking these questions, not only in standard experimental models such as cell lines and rodent islets, but also in pancreatic islets isolated from human donors. As such, we run a human research islet program, aimed at understanding the mechanisms that control human islet function in health and disease.