Our research aims to expand the understanding of how hormones regulate pancreatic islets in health and disease. Currently, a major focus of the lab is to define the normal adaptations of islets, particularly insulin-producing beta-cells, to the metabolic stress of pregnancy, and to determine how defective adaptation contributes to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). We anticipate that elucidating physiologic mechanisms of gestational beta-cell adaptation will identify novel therapeutic strategies to expand functional beta-cell mass which would help in the treatment of all types of diabetes.