University
of Pennsylvania
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
415 Curie Boulevard
626 Clinical Research Building
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6149
Phone: (215) 573-5413
Fax: (215) 898-5408
E-mail: stoffers@mail.med.upenn.edu
Education
Undergraduate:
Johns Hopkins University
Degree: B.A. in Chemistry
Medical: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Degree: M.D. in Medicine
Degree: Ph.D. in Neuroscience
Residency
Brigham
and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusettes
Fellowship:
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusettes
Board Certification:
Internal Medicine
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Biography
Dr.
Stoffers is an Assistant Professor of Medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
She obtained her BA in Chemistry from the Johns
Hopkins University in 1984 and completed the
combined MD-PhD program at Johns Hopkins Medical
School in 1991. She then completed Internal Medicine
residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Harvard Medical School in 1993. Following completion
of a clinical fellowship in Endocrinology at
Massachusetts General Hospital, she carried out
a research fellowship in the Laboratory of Dr.
Joel F. Habener, Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology,
also at Massachusetts General Hospital. She became
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
before joining the faculty at the University
of Pennsylvania in November 1998. Dr. Stoffers’ honors
and awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Biomedical
Research Fellowship Radcliffe College, Harvard
University, a Penn-Hughes Fellow Award at the
University of Pennsylvania, a Career Development
Award from the American Diabetes Association,
and several research grants from the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation and the National
Institutes of Health.
Dr. Stoffers' research is focused on pancreas development
and its relationship to the pathophysiology of diabetes
mellitus, a disorder of epidemic proportions that
is characterized by insufficient insulin to promote
glucose metabolism. This is due in most cases to
an insufficiency of the numbers and/or function of
pancreatic ß cells,
the only cells in the body that produce insulin.
Dr. Stoffers’ work has demonstrated that certain
forms of human diabetes and the rarer disorder of
pancreatic agenesis are due to genetic defects in
a transcription factor, IPF-1 (also known as PDX-1),
that regulates pancreas development and ß cell
differentiation. Further, the incretin hormone GLP-1
improves ß cell function and mass at least
in part by regulating the expression of this transcription
factor. A long acting GLP-1 receptor agonist, Exendin-4,
is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of
human type 2 diabetes. Current research in Dr. Stoffers’ laboratory
is focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms
of IPF-1/PDX-1 function and elucidating the signal
transduction and transcriptional pathways employed
by GLP-1 to improve ß cell mass. These studies
involve the use of molecular biology, genomic and
proteomic approaches, genetic and surgically induced
animal models, as well as human genetic studies.
Dr. Stoffers is a member of the Cell and Molecular
Biology and the Pharmacology Graduate Groups. She
is also particularly involved in mentoring and advising
through the combined degree Medical Scientist Training
Program and the Clinical Investigator Pathway at Penn.
