Marcela Brissova

March 28, 2024

Teams to create one-stop resource for human pancreatic data to foster diabetes research

Leading investigators in diabetes, pancreas and islet biology, and computational biology have received $12.5 million in two five-year awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create the world’s first, integrated knowledge base of human-derived tissue- and cellular-level pancreatic information to support innovative, collaborative and reproducible research.

By Jill Clendening
December 4, 2023

Study links gene network and pancreatic beta cell defects to Type 2 diabetes

A comprehensive study that integrates multiple analytic approaches has linked a regulatory gene network and functional defects in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to Type 2 diabetes.

By Leigh MacMillan and Jill Clendening
July 6, 2023

Yasminye Pettway selected as the 2023 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar

Yasminye Pettway has been selected as the 2023 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar.

By Bill Snyder
Insulin in vials
May 20, 2021

Beta cell regeneration

Vanderbilt researchers dissected the complex microenvironment of the pancreatic islet to discover the signals that drive beta cell regeneration — as a possible treatment for diabetes.

By Leigh MacMillan
December 22, 2020

Pancreatlas provides access to complex images of the human pancreas

Images of cells and tissues are a critical part of biomedical research as they show which molecules or proteins are present and where these molecules are located in the tissue. Using increasingly sophisticated microscopes and imaging approaches, scientists can now look at more than 40 different molecules at once, an approach known as multi-plex imaging, where in the past they could only look at three or four molecules at a time.

By Jill Clendening
Marcela Brissova, PhD, and MD/PhD student John “Jack” Walker are part of the research team that developed a pseudoislet system for integrated studies of human islet function.
July 30, 2020

Pseudoislet system expected to advance pancreas and diabetes research

The multicellular, 3-D structure of human pancreatic islets — the areas of the pancreas containing hormone-producing or endocrine cells — has presented challenges to researchers as they study and manipulate these cells’ function, but Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers have now developed a pseudoislet system that allows for much easier study of islet function.

By Jill Clendening
January 17, 2019

Study points to alternate therapy for rare form of diabetes

Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers say an unexpected finding during the cellular analysis of human pancreatic tissue has revealed new information about a rare type of diabetes and underscores the importance of genetic testing for some individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
By Jill Clendening
March 6, 2018

Discovery by Vanderbilt-led group could lead to improved diabetes treatment

Vanderbilt investigators and colleagues around the country have made a major discovery that could lead to better ways to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D).
By Bill Snyder
November 9, 2017

New phenotyping program to bolster global diabetes research efforts

The use of human pancreatic islets to conduct diabetes-related research has greatly expanded in recent years, and a Human Islet Phenotyping Program (HIPP) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been established to provide important islet data to investigators worldwide.
By Jill Clendening
December 8, 2016

Making human beta cells reproduce

A new method developed at Vanderbilt will speed the search for potential therapeutics for diabetes: compounds that stimulate the replication of insulin-producing beta cells.
By VUMC News and Communications
January 14, 2016

Major grants bolster VUMC diabetes research

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received more than $11 million in new grant support aimed at slowing the growing burden of diabetes.
By Bill Snyder