Gunilla T Westermark

Gunilla T Westermark currently Professor in Medical Cell Biology, at Uppsala University Sweden. I have a PhD in experimental pathology, Linköping University where the studies focused on size and charge characterization of protein AA deposited in different tissue compartments in AA amyloidosis. For the postgraduate training I joined Donald F Steiner’s laboratory at HHMI, University of Chicago. The research interest remained in the amyloid field but changed to IAPP and islet amyloid at that time believed to be limited to type 2 diabetes. At DF Steiner lab we generated a mouse models for human IAPP expression where the phenotype resembled the human condition with intra- and extracellular IAPP amyloid deposits resulting in beta-cell loss. Today, the research includes studies on inhibition of IAPP aggregation, cross-seeding of IAPP and Aβ and tissue tropism where spreading of amyloid (IAPP, TTR and AA) in an individual is investigated. We use mouse models, Drosophila melanogaster and isolated human pancreatic islets for our studies.