ABOVE: Mueckler in his lab in 1998
BECKER MEDICAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Michael Mueckler, a cellular biologist who studied glucose transport and blood sugar regulation, has died at the age of 67. According to an announcement from the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) School of Medicine, where Mueckler worked for more than 30 years, he died of natural causes in his home on July 14.
According to his WUSTL biography, Mueckler earned a bachelor’s degree in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and stayed there for his oncology PhD work. After graduating in 1983, he completed a three-year postdoc at MIT. He joined the faculty at WUSTL in 1986, where he remained until his retirement in 2019.
Mueckler’s work was centered around the mechanisms of glucose metabolism regulation and identifying factors that interfere with the process, leading to diabetes, certain cancers, and other conditions....
In the early 2000s, Mueckler’s lab investigated how HIV protease inhibitor therapy could cause insulin resistance, among other side effects. He found that GLUT4, found in adipose tissue and certain muscle tissues, was most affected by the therapy, explaining some of the drug’s complications.
Throughout his career, he coauthored 95 papers and edited a set of books about receptors and transporters. In 1998, the American Diabetes Association awarded Mueckler its Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award.
He is survived by his ex-wife, Paula Hartman, his daughter, Sita Upadhyay, and his extended family.
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