UCSF Diabetes Center

Twenty-six million Americans now have type 2 diabetes and nearly 79 million more have pre-diabetes. Genetic defects play a role in causing type 2 diabetes, but for almost all patients these defects have been unknown.

Besides running the Diabetes Center as our Director, Matthias Hebrok, PhD, is one of the world's foremost experts on pancreatic development.  Dr. Hebrok and his lab colleagues are studying how the insulin-producing pancreatic islets are formed during organogenesis and how their function is regulated in the mature pancreas.  Ultimately, they hope to learn how changes in gene expression may allow islets to regenerate in individuals living with diabetes.

A number of new clinical studies using investigational drugs for type 1 diabetes have been launched by the UCSF Pediatric Diabetes Clinical Research Program under the leadership of Steve Gitelman, MD. Investigational drugs are those that are not approved for use in diabetes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Former Center Director, Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, continues to stay busy in his current position as UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.  He is helping to tackle the university’s financial crisis while continuing to maintain his lab in the Diabetes Center.

It is truly an honor to lead the Diabetes Center, not only because of the strength of our diabetes research, clinical care and education programs, but because I have the pleasure of working with some of the world’s most accomplished and dedicated diabetes research and medical professionals, collectively focused on improving the lives of those impacted by diabetes.

Significant progress has been made in improving the results and clinical applicability of pancreatic islet transplantation as a treatment for type 1 diabetes.

Robert Rushakoff, MD, Mary Sullivan, RN, DNP, ANP-BC, CDE, and other UCSF clinicians are focused on improving diabetes management for both hospitalized patients and patients transitioning both into the hospital and then back to their homes.

We're proud to announce the date of our very popular Pediatric Diabetes Symposium & Kids Kamp -- Saturday, March 12, 2011.  This event will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

During the program, parents will hear informative presentations on both diabetes management and cutting-edge research.  Children with diabetes and their siblings will be educated and entertained at Kids Kamp.

Suneil Koliwad, MD, of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease has joined the faculty of the UCSF Diabetes Center to continue his research involving inflammation and the role it plays in diabetes.

This fall, we celebrated our tenth anniversary when diabetes research, clinical care and education were all united into one organization to more rapidly improve the quality of life of those living with diabetes. In these past ten years, we’ve accelerated our basic research efforts and have aggressively pursued promising clinical research to help generate new treatments for this disease.