The pancreatic islet is a multicellular unit that maintains glucose homeostasis. It includes endocrine, endothelial, neuronal, and immune cells. Islet function relies on the dynamic interplay between these various cellular components. Notably, each of these islet cell populations further divides into subgroups, yet the role of such "cellular heterogeneity" in islet function or impairment is still not fully understood.
Islet dysfunction, or more specifically, dysfunction of the insulin producing β-cells, leads to diabetes, a spectrum of metabolic diseases involving activation of the immune system, whether innate, adaptive, or both.
The over-arching goal of the lab is to define the inter-cellular interactions in the islet with translational potential for treatment of immune-driven islet dysfunction and diabetes.
