Dr. Gina Yosten has been named the Kummer Endowed Department Chair of biological sciences at Missouri University of Science and Technology. She is the first person to hold this title at Missouri S&T, and will join the university on Tuesday, July 1.

“We are delighted to welcome Gina to the department and to have her lead its efforts in strengthening the new Ph.D. program,” says Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, vice provost and dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education at Missouri S&T. “With her exceptional track record in both teaching and research, I am confident she will be dedicated to prioritizing the student experience and fostering academic excellence.”

Yosten’s research focuses on the roles of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), in particular orphan GPCRs, in metabolic diseases such as type 1 diabetes and Prader Willi Syndrome. Through funding from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and with the incorporation of Bruker Spatial Biology’s spatial molecular imaging platform, CosMx, Yosten’s group is currently developing three-dimensional transcriptomic maps of pancreatic islets to decipher how glucagon-producing cells are affected in people with type 1 diabetes. With support from the Foundation for Prader Willi Research, the Yosten lab is evaluating potential peptide-based treatments for the profound metabolic and endocrine symptoms associated with Prader Willi syndrome. Additional projects of the Yosten lab have been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Yosten serves on the editorial board of Physiological Reviews, Peptides Journal, and the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, for which she previously served as editor-in-chief. She is a member of the board of directors of the American Physiological Society, and is a founder and the current CEO of Confluence Research Foundation, a non-profit research organization.

Yosten is currently a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine, where she was previously an associate and assistant professor.

Yosten earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology and physiology from Saint Louis University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology and biomedical science from the University of Oklahoma. She is a member of the American Physiological Society, the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviors, the American Heart Association, and the Endocrine Society.

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.