Dr.
Verchere, Bruce
BSc, MSc, PhD (Brit. Col.)
e-mail:
Lab Website
Academic Rank:
Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Professor, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Affiliation(s):
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Location:
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Short Bio
- Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Director, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics
- Childhood Diabetes Laboratories, BC Children’s Hospital
- Irving K Barber Chair in Diabetes Research
Bruce Verchere, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Surgery at the University of British Columbia (UBC), head of the Diabetes Research Program at the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI) at BC Children’s Hospital, and the Irving K Barber Chair in Diabetes Research. His research aims to develop therapeutic approaches for enhancing beta cell survival and function in diabetes and islet transplants and he has published over 100 manuscripts in the field of islet biology and diabetes. Dr. Verchere was awarded the UBC Outstanding Young Alumnus award in 2000, the Canadian Diabetes Association Young Scientist award in 2006, and in 2012 received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for diabetes research and service. His research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA), and JDRF. Currently, Dr. Verchere is chair of the CIHR Diabetes Obesity Lipid and Lipoprotein Disorders and JDRF Islet Biology & Transplantation Training and Innovative grant review panels, and a member of the national research council and national board of directors of the Canadian Diabetes Association He has served on the editorial boards of Diabetes and the Canadian Journal of Diabetes and is currently on the editorial board of Endocrinology, and associate editor of the journal Islets.
Academic Backgrounds
- Post-doctoral fellow (Molecular Biology), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. 1997
- Post-doctoral fellow (Medicine), Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Seattle, Washington Department of Medicine, Seattle, WA. 1996
- PhD, University of British Columbia, Physiology. 1991
- MSc, University of British Columbia, Physiology. 1987
- BSc, University of British Columbia, Cell Biology. 1983
Awards & Recognition
Current Openings & Opportunities
Current Projects In My Lab include
Research
- Insulin-producing beta cell of the pancreatic islet. The beta cell synthesizes and secretes the precise amount of insulin into the blood so that glucose and other nutrients can be stored as energy in tissue. In persons with diabetes, beta cells are dysfunctional or are destroyed, resulting in a deficiency of insulin secretion, which in turn leads to high blood glucose levels. In type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes, the beta cells are killed by the patient’s own immune system. In type 2 (adult onset) diabetes, there is a decreased sensitivity of the peripheral tissues to insulin, and the beta cells cannot secrete sufficient insulin to compensate for this demand. Eventually, insulin secretion declines, probably due to loss of beta cells because of the toxic effects of prolonged hyperglycemia and the accumulation of islet amyloid deposits. We are trying to understand how beta cells are killed in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In the long term, we hope to devise new ways to protect beta cells from dying, thereby slowing or preventing the onset of the disease.
- Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes
- Beta cell biology, islet amyloid, amylin, insulin, prohormone processing, apoptosis, hormone secretion, transgenic mice, islet transplantation, autoantigens, histology