He is utilizing state-of-the-art quantitative fluorescence microscopy, including two-photon microscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging, polarization imaging and FRET in studying pancreatic islet dysfunction in diabetes. Dr. Benninger has developed an integrative model of how different cell-cell communication mechanisms dynamically interact within the islet. They have gained understanding into how this impact in-vivo islet function and glucose homeostasis and are now demonstrating that gap junction channels can be modulated to improve islet function and insulin secretion in models of diabetes.
Overall his work applies sophisticated quantitative techniques and predictive quantitative models to link emergent multi-cellular properties of the islet of Langerhans to in-vivo physiology and diabetes, and test novel hypotheses regarding these properties that may be clinically important.
