HHMI/University
of Pennsylvania
Department of Medicine
415 Curie Boulevard
322 Clinical Research Building
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6148
Phone: (215) 898-5001
Fax: (215) 573-9138
E-mail: birnbaum@hhmi.upenn.edu
Education
Undergraduate:
Brown University
Degree: A.B.
Medical: Brown University
Degree: M.D.
Brown University (Biology)
Degree: Ph.D.
Residency
Barnes
Hospital
St. Louis, MO
Fellowships:
University of California
San Francisco, CA
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute
New York, NY
Board Certification:
Internal Medicine
Biography
Dr.
Birnbaum is a Professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental
Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine. He received his B.A., M.D., and Ph.D. from
Brown University, the latter for studies on the hormonal
regulation of hepatic glycogenolysis. After internship
and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital
in St. Louis, MO, he completed post-doctoral training
as a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow at the University of
California, San Francisco and at Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Institute in the laboratory of the late Ora M. Rosen.
He then moved to Harvard Medical School, initially
as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department
of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, and then in
the Department of Cell Biology.
In 1994, Dr. Birnbaum moved to the University of Pennsylvania
to become the Rhoda and Willard Ware Professor of
Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases and an Investigator
in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Birnbaum's
research concerns a number of aspects of the regulation
of metabolism and growth. Major problems currently
under study include the mechanism by which insulin
regulates a number of physiological metabolic functions,
particularly glucose uptake into muscle and adipose
tissue. These studies include consideration of both
insulin signal transduction cascades and the trafficking
of the insulin-responsive GLUT4 glucose transporter
among various subcellular compartments.
Recently, Dr. Birnbaum has initiated experiments aimed
at clarifying how contraction and exercise also stimulate
glucose uptake into muscle. It has now become clear
that insulin and IGF-1 also exert profound effects
on cell survival and growth, even in the absence of
concomitant changes in cell proliferation. Dr. Birnbaum
is currently studying these processes in mammalian
tissue culture cells, mice and in the model organism,
the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. These observations
have led to a consideration of the factors that regulate
the growth and survival of pancreatic beta cells,
and likely influence susceptibility to pancreatic
endocrine failure and diabetes mellitus.
