Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Diabetes is a disease that affects individuals of all ages whereby the progressive failure and death of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells results in elevated blood sugar levels and numerous severe health complications such as stroke, heart disease and blindness. In diabetes, where the beta cells are destroyed (Type 1 diabetes) or stop functioning (Type 2 diabetes), the possibility of replacing lost or unhealthy beta cells with healthy ones offers new hope for a life free from daily insulin injections. One option for replacing these cells is to transplant cells from a donor. Unfortunately, the success of this therapy has so far been limited in two ways: first, transplantation requires a large number of donor beta cells and demand currently exceeds supply. Secondly, over time these transplanted cells stop releasing insulin or die. One way to address both of these issues is to get the beta cells to multiply, producing new cells from a small starting number. Unfortunately, we currently know very little about why beta cells rarely multiply or how to increase their growth. The proposed project will use advanced genetic screening technology to study the molecular pathways that stop beta cells from mulitplying. We believe that this approach will help us to dramatically increase our understanding of beta cell growth. This information will allow for the development of specific treatments to increase beta cell division for the production of more beta cells either outside the body to produce more cells for transplantation or possibly even inside the body by encouraging natural beta cells to multiply. In so doing, we will gain unprecedented insight into how this system might be exploited to increase beta cell mass in people with diabetes, thereby improving insulin production and blood glucose levels for better overall health.