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Bergman Lab

Personal Statement

I was originally trained as an electrical engineer at Case Institute of Technology (now Case-Western Reserve University). This training led to my appreciation of how systems composed of different components can work together to achieve a common goal. I believed that this "systems approach" had wider applicability."


Richard Bergman, PhD

We have discovered that free fatty acids, common lipid molecules in blood, change with time. We reported in animals that FFAs are elevated in the middle of the night (3 am), a result that has been replicated in human volunteers. We have hypothesized that this nocturnal surge in FFA has important metabolic consequences: that is, not only does it contribute to glucose intolerance, but the surge is also responsible for the increase in insulin secretory function that normally accompanies insulin resistance. It is the failure of the pancreatic islets (i.e., beta-cells) to compensate for insulin resistance that is responsible for the prediabetic state. We are examining the explicit role of the FFA surge in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes.

Meet Our Team

Kolka CM, Castro AV, Kirkman EL, Bergman RN.

Metabolism. 2015 Feb;64(2):330-337.

Ionut V, Castro AV, Woolcott OO, Stefanovski D, Iyer MS, Broussard JL, Burch M, Elazary R, Kolka CM, Mkrtchyan H, Bediako IA, Bergman RN.

Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Oct 15;307(8):E644-652.

Woolcott OO, Castillo OA, Gutierrez C, Elashoff RM, Stefanovski D, Bergman RN.

Obesity (Silver Spring). 2014 Sep;22(9):2080-2090.

Contact the Bergman Lab

8730 Alden Drive.
Thalians Building, Room E104
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Fax: 310-967-3869