Pamela Itkin-Ansari PhD

Pamela Itkin-Ansari earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, in 1999. She received postdoctoral training focused on diabetes at that same organization. In 2003, Dr. Itkin-Ansari was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, UC San Diego. She moved her laboratory to Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2005.

Funding Awards and Collaborative Grants

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
Falk Foundation
The Hartwell Foundation
The Hirshberg Foundation
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
National Institutes of Health

Select Honors and Recognition

2013-2014: Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, UCSD
2011-2014: Hartwell Foundation Biomedical Research Award
2011: Invited Speaker, TEDx 
2008-2013: Board of Directors, JDRF San Diego
2008: Health Hero Leadership Award, Combined Health Agencies of San Diego

Related Disease
Cancer, Diabetes – General, Gastric Cancer, Monogenic Diabetes, Pancreatic Cancer, Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes

Dr. Itkin-Ansari’s research is directed toward understanding diseases of the human pancreas.

Pamela Itkin-Ansari’s Research Report

Diabetes

Areas of focus are: 1) developing a cell-based therapy for diabetes that does not require immunosuppression, and 2) identifying proteins required for proper insulin production and processing.

Pancreatic Cancer

The lab determined how dysregulation of specific transcription factors triggers pathogenic cell cycle entry in normal pancreatic cells. This master signaling pathway controlling pancreatic cancer cell growth is yielding potential targets for drug discovery.