Bridget Wagner's research focuses on finding ways to stop or slow down the destruction of pancreatic beta cells, which, in diabetes, cease producing insulin and die off. She takes a three-pronged approach to stimulate the body to regenerate beta cells. The first tack is to stimulate the beta cell itself to divide in order to restore which would restore insulin production. The second is to try to prevent cell death in the first place by identifying compounds that could overcome the autoimmune-based attacks on beta cells. The third method is through "trans-differentiation of other cell types in the pancreas." To this end, her lab develops cell-based assays to observe different aspects of beta cell function and health, and then performs screens with small organic synthetic compounds.

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