Endocrine Abstracts

Stem cell therapy offers a far-sighted opportunity to cure Type 1 diabetes. To achieve this ambitious goal, an in depth understanding of how human beta cells normally develop is critical, as it provides the perfect model for the differentiation of stem cells down normal safe developmental pathways. Our data provide a framework of human pancreas development and islet formation, highlighting subtle differences from the parallel process in mouse. Key genes have been identified th...

Understanding human pancreatic beta cell differentiation provides safe, normal pathways by which to manipulate stem cells for the ambitious treatment of Type 1 diabetes (1-3). The transcription factor Neurogenin 3 (Ngn3) is a transient, yet critical regulator of this process, committing progenitor cells to an endocrine cell fate (4). However, the downstream consequences of NGN3 expression remain incompletely understood.To identify new target genes of NGN...