Joseph Bass, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute
To Contact Dr. Bass:
phone: (847) 467-5973
e-mail: j-bass@northwestern.edu
Dr. Bass' website
Research Interests
The focus of Dr. Joe Bass’ research is on insulin signaling and the
neuroendocrine regulation of body weight and energy balance. His approach
integrates cell biological and genetic strategies, with an emphasis on gene
targeting and chemical mutagenesis in the mouse. Previous studies have identified
over 60 mutations in the insulin receptor gene (IR) in families with congenital
insulin resistance, a monogenic subtype of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Surprisingly,
even first degree relatives with identical IR mutations show differences in
disease onset and in the severity of secondary complications. To better understand
the pathobiology of this disorder, and because IR null mutations are lethal,
Dr. Bass’ laboratory is producing two insulin receptor knock-in animals
to introduce mutations that they originally identified in a young woman with
congenital insulin into the germline of the mouse. The allele series produced
by these IR mutant animals will shed light on the role of insulin receptor
signaling during early differentiation, during development and in the progression
of type 2 diabetes. Genetic models in the mouse have also enabled them to
make the exciting discovery that the transcription network at the core of
the endogenous biological clock also regulates feeding and metabolism. We
will address how altered clock gene function results in metabolic disease
using behavioral, metabolic and molecular analyses in the Clock mutant mouse
and in other conditional and multi-tissue knock-out models. Finally, through
collaboration with the Center on Functional Genomics, Dr. Bass’ lab
has initiated a phenotype-based screen for diabetes-causing genes in the mouse.