Maureen Gannon, PhD is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with secondary appointments in the Departments of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics and Cell & Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University. She received her undergraduate degree from Molloy College and her Master’s Degree from Adelphi University, both on Long Island in NY. She received her PhD in Cell Biology and Anatomy from Cornell University.
Dr. Gannon is a member of the Executive Committee for the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center. She is also very active in the American Diabetes Association, having served on several national committees, including two years as chair of the planning committee for the association’s annual scientific conference, and one year as Chair of the Islet Biology Professional Interest Group. She is currently a senior associate editor for Diabetes, the premier scientific research journal of the American Diabetes Association.
The research in Dr. Gannon’s lab is focused on factors that regulate the number of insulin-producing cells during embryonic development and in response to pregnancy, obesity, and aging. Her research has implications for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. The Gannon lab has identified genes that regulate the number of insulin cells an individual is born with and has discovered pathways that can increase the number of insulin cells in the adult pancreas.
Dr. Gannon’s research has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Diabetes Association, and the Veterans Administration. She has presented her research at conferences in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Dr. Gannon is very active in training and mentoring undergraduates, graduate students and junior faculty. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and son. In her spare time she performs in Celtic singing and Irish Step Dancing, having performed at the Ryman Auditorium with The Chieftains, onstage at the Grand Old Opry, and at TPAC. She also sings in her church music group and volunteers with her son’s boy scout troop