Donald Scott, PhD

Donald Scott, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease and is a member of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute, and of the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute. Dr. Scott’s group works on the nutritional regulation of cellular phenotype. The Scott Laboratory studies molecular mechanisms that coordinate how nutrients, especially glucose, alter the regulation of genes to change the phenotype of cells.  His work focuses on three glucose-sensing transcription factors: ChREBP, Myc and Nrf2.  He found that all three factors are necessary for adaptive beta cell proliferation and expansion of beta cell mass in response to a high fat diet.  Furthermore, he found that the feed-forward induction of ChREBP-beta, an isoform of ChREBP, drives the adaptive response, but leads to glucose toxicity when expressed at too high a level for too long a time. In addition, he found that activation of Nrf2, a master regulator of antioxidant enzymes, can mitigate the effects of ChREBP-beta-mediated glucose toxicity, but can also stimulate beta cell proliferation even in low concentrations of glucose. Manipulation of these transcription factors may offer unique targets for increasing and preserving beta cell mass in diabetes. His work is funded by the NIH.

Dr. Scott is member of the Graduate Faculty and is affiliated with the Systems Biology of Disease and Therapeutics Multiple Training Area.