Generation of beta cells from stems cells using novel regulators

Diabetes is a chronic condition that occurs when the pancreatic beta-cells are destroyed or cannot secrete enough of the hormone insulin to keep up with the demand.

Cell replacement therapies aim to generate insulin-producing beta-like cells from stem cells in order to replace or aid the failing innate beta-cells of people living with diabetes. This therapy has great potential and has recently advanced to clinical trials.

However, beta-like cells generated from stem cells cannot perform glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in the same capacity as innate beta-cells. This impedes their use in broader clinical applications.

This proposal aims to identify and characterize key regulators of GSIS and other insulin-related pathways in the beta-cell in order to improve beta-cell generation protocols from stem cells.

Transcription factors are key regulators of cellular identity and are responsible for orchestrating both specific and ubiquitous functions in a cell.

Using computational analysis, we identified previously unknown candidate transcription factors that likely control GSIS in the pancreatic beta-cells.

We aim to characterize their impact on the beta-cell function and use this knowledge to improve the functionality of stem cell generated beta-cells, with particular emphasis on GSIS.