Matthias Hebrok, Ph.D. is the Hurlbut-Johnson Distinguished Professor in Diabetes Research and Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, a nationally designated Diabetes Research Center of excellence. He is the recipient of multiple honors and awards, including the JDRF Scholar Award. He received his Diploma degree in cellular biology from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany, performed his Ph.D. thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Immunobiology, and conducted his postdoctoral research at HHMI at Harvard University.
At the UCSF Diabetes Center, Dr. Hebrok leads a team of scientists working together to improve the quality of life of those living with the disease and to ultimately discover a cure. His laboratory has made seminal contributions to our understanding of how signals derived by the embryo control the development of the pancreas and its insulin-producing beta cells. His recent work has implemented the information gained from these studies to generate functional beta cells from human stem cell populations for cell therapy purposes. He and his colleagues have also developed differentiation conditions that allow for the generation of functional thymic epithelial cells from human stem cells, a possible means of regulating immune responses in T1D. Dr. Hebrok has participated on numerous grant review committees for the JDRF and recently served as the Chair of the NIH Cellular Aspects of Diabetes and Obesity (CADO) study section. He was a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Diabetes Mellitus Interagency Coordinating Committee (DMICC).
