How can we generate more human gastric cell types in vitro?
Using our insights from the adaptation of the stomach to sleeve gastrectomy and our long interest in developmental biology, we are making gastric cell types in vitro from adult biopsies, and using them to study gastric physiology and endocrinology
What is the relationship between blood glucose and insulin secretion?
Insulin is secreted according the blood glucose levels. So we would expect that the insulin secretion rate would follow blood glucose levels. Right? Not exactly. We are measuring insulin secretion rate in healthy volunteers and in volunteers with type 2 diabetes to understand the relationship between glucose, insulin and insulin secretion rate.
What genes are expressed in human islets?
There is so much single cell RNAseq data on human islets, but it's hard to have a simple glance at gene expression level across cell types, HbA1c, age, sex, ethnicity, BMI and/or other metadata. We optimized quality control for pancreatic endocrine cells and designed a user friendly website that enables the non-data-science-expert researcher to check gene expression in any condition and even perform differential expression analysis on data curated by the Human Pancreatic Analysis Program.
How do hormones reach the brain?
We think that changes in the biophysical properties of the fenestrated blood vessels that enable hormones such as leptin to enter the hypothalamus can explain hormonal imbalances that occur in pregnancy and obesity.
