PDF

Beta Cell Interest Group (BIG)

Current and ongoing beta cell research is presented in this weekly seminar by faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students. If you are interested in attending the Beta Cell Interest Group (BIG) seminars and joining the BIG community, please contact David Jacobson.

Keywords: Beta cell BIG
Record History
Added on May 3, 2016 at 10:34 AM by Brown, Deborah
Modified on May 3, 2016 at 3:24 PM by Brown, Deborah
Shared with (contributions)
BIG: Beta Cell Interest Group (BIG) Master

Meeting Details

Start Date / Time May 17, 2016 at 10:00 AM
End Date / Time May 17, 2016 at 10:55 AM
Duration 55 minutes
Location 512 Light Hall
Presenter Name Christian Meyer and David Wooten (VQuaranta’s lab)
Presentation Title Engineering Endocrine Transdifferentiation: A Systems Approach
Status This meeting has already occurred

Meeting Agenda/Notes

Understanding how cellular identity emerges from underlying gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is challenging, yet recent studies have demonstrated that cellular identity can be controlled by targeted activation or silencing of a subset of key transcription factors (TFs). However, identifying these key TFs remains challenging because of the number of possible combinations of network perturbations.  Here we propose a method which leverages the global-topology information of an endocrine-specific GRN to come up with computationally predicted and unsuspected methods for engineering alpha to beta cell transdifferentiation.  Preliminary analysis predicts that aberrant expression/knockdown of three critical TFs: PAX4, MAFB, and cJUN, will induce alpha to beta cell conversion in the murine model.