
John A. Corbett, PhD
Professor and Chair
Locations
- Biochemistry
BSB 373A
Contact Information
Education
BS, Saint Norbert College, 1985
Biography
John A. Corbett received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Saint Norbert in 1985 and his Doctorate in Biochemistry from Utah State University in 1990. He performed postdoctoral studies at Washington University School of Medicine in the Department of Pathology from 1990-94. In 1995 Dr. Corbett joined Saint Louis University as an Assistant Professor in Biochemistry and rose to the rank of Professor in 2005. In 2007, Dr. Corbett joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham as the Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Juvenile Diabetes Research, Professor in Medicine, and Director of The Comprehensive Diabetes Center. Dr. Corbett joined the faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2010.
Research Interests
Our laboratory is focused on determining the factors that influence the function and survival of pancreatic beta cells in the context of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. We currently have three ongoing research programs. The broad goals of the first project are to elucidate the cellular mechanisms that are responsible for pancreatic beta cell death and to identify mechanisms by which beta cells protect themselves against cytokine- and free radical-mediated damage. Nitric oxide, the primary mediator of the inhibitory actions of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interferon-g (IFN-g) on beta cell function, also activates a "recovery" pathway that protects beta cells from cytokine-mediated damage. It is the delicate balance between the toxic and protective actions of nitric oxide that ultimately determine the susceptibility of beta cells to cytokine-mediated damage.
The broad goals of the second research program are to elucidate the biochemical mechanisms by which virus infection regulates macrophage activation and to determine the virus-activated pathways that contribute to the loss of beta cell function and viability. Using a virus known to induce diabetes in susceptible mice, we have recently identified three novel antiviral signaling pathways that regulate inflammatory gene expression in macrophages.
The third major research program tests the hypotheses that increased levels of random mutations in beta cell mtDNA lead to the loss of beta cell function and the inability to maintain normal glycemic control, and increase the vulnerability of beta cells to a secondary stress such as insulin resistance induced by a high fat diet. To examine these hypotheses, transgenic (Tg) mice that accumulate mtDNA mutations in beta cells due to the expression of an error-prone mtDNA polymerase under control of the rat insulin promoter have been generated.
Publications
-
Cytokine and Nitric Oxide-Dependent Gene Regulation in Islet Endocrine and Nonendocrine Cells.
(Stancill JS, Kasmani MY, Khatun A, Cui W, Corbett JA.) Function (Oxf). 2022;3(1):zqab063 PMID: 34927076 PMCID: PMC8674205 12/21/2021
-
Single-cell RNA sequencing of mouse islets exposed to proinflammatory cytokines.
(Stancill JS, Kasmani MY, Khatun A, Cui W, Corbett JA.) Life Sci Alliance. 2021 06;4(6) PMID: 33883217 PMCID: PMC8091599 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85105569108 04/23/2021
-
Regulation of ATR-dependent DNA damage response by nitric oxide.
(Yeo CT, Stancill JS, Oleson BJ, Schnuck JK, Stafford JD, Naatz A, Hansen PA, Corbett JA.) J Biol Chem. 2021 Jan-Jun;296:100388 PMID: 33567339 PMCID: PMC7967039 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85102940015 02/11/2021
-
(Volberding PJ, Xin G, Kasmani MY, Khatun A, Brown AK, Nguyen C, Stancill JS, Martinez E, Corbett JA, Cui W.) Cell Rep. 2021 05 25;35(8):109160 PMID: 34038722 PMCID: PMC8182757 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85106489485 05/27/2021
-
The Role of Thioredoxin/Peroxiredoxin in the β-Cell Defense Against Oxidative Damage.
(Stancill JS, Corbett JA.) Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021;12:718235 PMID: 34557160 PMCID: PMC8453158 09/25/2021
-
(Stafford JD, Yeo CT, Corbett JA.) J Biol Chem. 2020 12 25;295(52):18189-18198 PMID: 33100269 PMCID: PMC7939444 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85098251411 10/27/2020
-
Mitophagy protects β cells from inflammatory damage in diabetes.
(Sidarala V, Pearson GL, Parekh VS, Thompson B, Christen L, Gingerich MA, Zhu J, Stromer T, Ren J, Reck EC, Chai B, Corbett JA, Mandrup-Poulsen T, Satin LS, Soleimanpour SA.) JCI Insight. 2020 12 17;5(24) PMID: 33232298 PMCID: PMC7819751 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85097820706 11/25/2020
-
(Stafford JD, Shaheen ZR, Yeo CT, Corbett JA.) J Biol Chem. 2020 12 04;295(49):16655-16664 PMID: 32972972 PMCID: PMC7864063 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85097570380 09/26/2020
-
(Oleson BJ, Corbett JA.) Biochem Pharmacol. 2020 06;176:113907 PMID: 32171728 PMCID: PMC7263971 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85082676643 03/17/2020
-
SurfaceGenie: a web-based application for prioritizing cell-type-specific marker candidates.
(Waas M, Snarrenberg ST, Littrell J, Jones Lipinski RA, Hansen PA, Corbett JA, Gundry RL.) Bioinformatics. 2020 06 01;36(11):3447-3456 PMID: 32053146 PMCID: PMC7267825 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85085770971 02/14/2020
-
(Stancill JS, Happ JT, Broniowska KA, Hogg N, Corbett JA.) Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2020 05 01;318(5):R1004-R1013 PMID: 32292063 PMCID: PMC7272767 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85084379321 04/16/2020
-
The location of sensing determines the pancreatic β-cell response to the viral mimetic dsRNA.
(Shaheen ZR, Stafford JD, Voss MG, Oleson BJ, Stancill JS, Corbett JA.) J Biol Chem. 2020 02 21;295(8):2385-2397 PMID: 31915247 PMCID: PMC7039570 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85079888996 01/10/2020