Scott A Soleimanpour, MD

Scott Soleimanpour, M.D. is the Larry D. Soderquist Professor of Diabetes Research, Director of the Michigan Diabetes Research Center, Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan, and immediate past director of the JDRF/Breakthrough T1D Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 1986, Dr. Soleimanpour is deeply invested in basic research focused on the genetic causes of beta cell failure in all forms of diabetes. Dr. Soleimanpour attended Kent State University and the Northeast Ohio Medical University as part of a 6-year combined B.S./M.D. program. During his pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research training, Dr. Soleimanpour completed diabetes research fellowships in the Vanderbilt University/NIDDK Medical Scholars program, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health (HHMI-NIH) Research Scholars program, and the William Osler Society of Fellows at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Penn and then moving to the University of Michigan in 2014. Among Dr. Soleimanpour’s key research contributions include studies focused on mitochondrial quality control, islet cell transplantation, and pediatric-to-adult T1D transition care, including seminal studies focused on control of pancreatic beta cell function by mitophagy as well as recent work on retrograde mitochondrial signaling and proteostasis in metabolic tissues. Dr. Soleimanpour has received awards and honors from the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Breakthrough T1D, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Central Society for Clinical and Translational Research, the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society, and The Endocrine Society. The Soleimanpour Lab has pioneered the study of mitochondrial quality control in beta cells in diabetes pathophysiology, and his lab continues to focus on how defects in mitochondrial quality control elicit metabolic dysfunction in T1D, T2D, and mitochondrial diabetes.

1. Understanding the role of the mitochondrial quality control in the development, function, and post-natal maintenance of beta cells
2. Investigating the primary role of pancreatic beta cells in the pathogenesis of T1D
3. Clarifying mitochondrial-ER crosstalk mechanisms in the pathogenesis of beta cell failure
4. Elucidating the role of the diabetes gene Clec16a in the regulation of mitochondrial quality control