Excited to share the 3rd first-author paper from my PhD! This was a collaborative effort from @JimJohnsonSci @nictitate @WyWyWa labs. A big thank you to everyone who participate and to CIHR and Breakthrough T1D Centre of Excellence at UBC for funding! https://t.co/70mEdRk3ZE

🚨The @SoleimanpourLab is hiring!!! 🚨 If you or someone you know is looking for a post-doctoral position and interested in studying mitochondria and diabetes, please get in touch (or RT)!

The @Lim_Labo is recruiting PhD students or Postdoctoral Fellows to study the roles of 14-3-3zeta in #adipocytes or pancreatic #betacells. Projects are supported by @CIHR_IRSC , @NSERC_CRSNG, or @DiabetesCanada Please share or RT. Thanks! @CRCHUM @UMontreal @med_umontreal

Dr. Johnson's (@JimJohnsonSci) lab identified the two Ins2 gene activity states in intact isolated islets and showed that cells in the same state were more likely to be nearer to each other. 🧫 @iScience_CP | https://t.co/jqCE2YpsFv

New from @JimJohnsonSci & colleagues. Novel insights into the proteomic profiles and regulation of β cell states through analysis of cells varying in Ins gene activity #islets #diabetes @cp-iscience.bsky.social

Congrats Jamie and all the collaborators on another fun project. We are learning lots about pancreatic beta cell states that are marked by low vs high insulin production.

7/ Overall, this study utilizes a novel method for prioritizing screening targets using omics datasets from SC-beta cells and human islets. We reveal new ways to protect SC-beta cells for type 1 diabetes cell therapy.

6/ We then compared each ligand across multiple doses, and found that the protective effects of FGFs were dose dependent. Of the FGFs, FGF4 the strongest effects across all concentrations tested.

5/ We found that cytokine induction reduced EGFP fluorescence (INS gene activity), and that this effect was also rescued by the FGFs.

4/ We found that of ~150 ligands screened, members of the fibroblast growth factor family had strong protective effects against cytokine-induced SC-beta cell death, in particular FGF4, FGF5, FGF8F, FGF19, and FGF21.

3/ We then screened the ligands in this prioritized list by analyzing cell death using propidium iodide and insulin production using an INS-EGFP reporter that was knocked-in to the stem cells.

2/ Basically, our selection criteria focused on ligand-receptor pairs with ‘sparse’ ligands but available receptors in SC-beta cells compared to human islets.

1/ We combined data from multiple bulk RNAseq, scRNAseq, and proteomics datasets from late stage stem cell-derived beta-cells (SC-beta) and human islets, and leverage this to generate a list of prioritized ligands for a medium throughput screen.

4/ We found that cytokine induction reduced EGFP fluorescence (INS gene activity), and that this effect was also rescued by the FGFs.

3/ We found that of ~150 ligands screened, members of the fibroblast growth factor family had strong protective effects against cytokine-induced SC-beta cell death, in particular FGF4, FGF5, FGF8F, FGF19, and FGF21.

3/ We then screened the ligands in this prioritized list by analyzing cell death using propidium iodide and insulin production using an INS-EGFP reporter that was knocked-in to the stem cells.

/2 Basically, our selection criteria focused on ligand-receptor pairs with ‘sparse’ ligands but available receptors in SC-beta cells compared to human islets.

/1 We combined data from multiple bulk RNAseq, scRNAseq, and proteomics datasets from late stage stem cell-derived beta-cells (SC-beta) and human islets, and leverage this to generate a list of prioritized ligands for a medium throughput screen.

We are looking for an imaging master to run a very cool shared microscope that will be unique to Canada - Raman label-free, 2-photon, FLIM, high-res, fast capture, thick live tissue, organoids, high-content screening. We are a dynamic and supportive and fun environment.

I defended my dissertation today! A big thank you to everyone who attended, and a big thanks to my examiners @guy_rutter @sheilateves @WyWyWa @ Luis lefebvre, and of course a big thank you to my mentor @JimJohnsonSci !