Diabetes Center at UCSF researchers in national beta cell effort

This article was distributed by the Diabetes Center at UCSF on Feb. 15, 2005. We repost it here for educational purposes only.

Diabetes Center researchers in national beta cell effort

In keeping with the Diabetes Center’s tradition of collaboration, faculty members Michael German, MD, Matthias Hebrok, PhD, and Didier Stainier, PhD are working in a national consortium with nearly twenty other renowned U.S. scientists to "fast track" the creation of insulin-producing beta cells.

This esteemed group of researchers, known as the Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC), was formed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2001 to advance the scientific community's understanding of pancreatic islet development and function. It is believed that this knowledge is critical if we are to succeed in converting human stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells.

In addition to sitting on the Consortium’s steering committee, Dr. German heads up the “Molecular Control of Pancreatic Islet Development” program of the BCBC. The program utilizes zebrafish, and human stem cells as model systems. In mouse model systems, the consortium is examining new strategies to rapidly manipulate genes that play essential roles in the development of the pancreas, with the aim to determine exactly what genes play a role in beta cell development and if this knowledge can be used to create new sources of beta cells. Dr. Hebrok’s BCBC project aims to define the role of neuronal guiding molecules during islet formation.

In addition to the Beta Cell Biology Consortium, Diabetes Center researchers are actively involved in a number of other important national and international collaborations, such as Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, as well as being home to the Immune Tolerance Network.