Pancreatic islet development and beta cell mass

Beta cell mass is an important component of type 2 diabetes progression, lower beta cell mass is associated with reduced insulinaemia, glucose intolerance and diabetes. Beta cell mass is highly heterogeneous among human individuals, and currently there are no methods for its clinical determination. Genetic information that predicts this, could become a cost-effective tool for diabetes diagnosis, treatment and prevention strategies; a great potential clinical asset in that could allow stratification of diabetes patients in the era of personalized medicine. The objectives of the group are to determine the genetic basis of beta cell mass, we study pancreas development with the use of human stem cells and differentation protocols, assisted by the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. We focus on T2D risk loci, but also on novel mutations and genes associated with monogenic diabetes, and characterize the molecular mechanisms of their association to disease. More info: https://bartolomelab.com