Robert Carl Stanton MD

Robert C. Stanton, M.D. is the Chief of the Kidney and Hypertension Section at the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a Principal Investigator in the Section on Vascular Cell Biology. Dr. Stanton is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School where he is involved with teaching at all levels. Dr. Stanton has lectured all over the world. He has received three Honorary Professorships from Universities in China. Dr. Stanton is the author of many original articles and chapters.

Dr. Stanton's research is centered on understanding the regulation and role of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in health and disease. G6PD (the rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway) is the principal source of NADPH which is the main intracellular reductant required by many critical cellular systems. Dr. Stanton's laboratory has determined that G6PD and NADPH are critical for cell survival and have demonstrated that increased levels of glucose (as occurs in diabetes) lead to a decrease in the activity of G6PD in certain cell types and, as a consequence, lower levels of NADPH.