Click HERE to access the YouTube video of the recording.
April 27, 2022 (12:00 pm Eastern/9:00 am Pacific)
Webinar co-sponsored with dkNET
Presented by:
Alok Joglekar, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Topics discussed:
The HIRN 2022 Annual Investigator Meeting will be held Wednesday, September 14 – Friday, September 16, 2022 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Remote participation will be supported via Zoom Webinar for virtual attendees.
Please contact the Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC) for information on how to participate as an exhibitor.
Click HERE to access the YouTube video of the recording.
January 27, 2022 (2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 am Pacific)
Presented by:
Rohit N Kulkarni, MD, PhD, Joslin Diabetes Center
Dario F De Jesus, PhD, Joslin Diabetes Center
Topics discussed:
New Investigator Gateway Award for Collaborative T1D Research (RFA DK-21-030)
The New Investigator Gateway Award in T1D Research is designed to support a robust pipeline of innovative projects and talented new investigators in T1D research. In addition to providing support for preliminary research, the Gateway program provides an opportunity for new Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD/PIs) to pursue their studies within the intellectual environment of a select number of large, ongoing collaborative research programs. Embedding awardees within an established scientific framework in each of these consortia will provide unique opportunities for New and Early Stage Investigators to increase their understanding of key questions in the field, to network, and to establish unique and potentially long-lasting collaborations that will propel their careers forward. Bringing New and Early Stage Investigators into existing collaborative research networks will also benefit the networks by providing new ideas and perspectives.
Key Dates
Internal HIRN Funding Opportunity:
A new funding initiative to support investigators developing bold, innovative, and challenging projects that will catalyze the field and provide important advances in topics of interest to the network. To be considered “catalyzing”, the proposed research must address significant and currently intractable problems by employing approaches or ideas that are currently outside the mainstream of contemporary research.
Learn more at: https://hirnetwork.org/catalyst2021
Apply HERE
Key Dates
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Posted Date: |
December 1, 2021 |
NIH NIDDK Workshop “Integrated Physiology of the Exocrine and Endocrine Compartments in Pancreatic Diseases Workshop”
The NIH NIDDK is hosting a 1.5 – day workshop will be to gather clinical and basic science investigators who are interested in diseases of the exocrine and/or endocrine pancreas and in achieving an understanding of how the two compartments interact in disease. This workshop will provide an opportunity for investigators in exocrine diseases to come together with those studying islets in diabetes as a means to foster interdisciplinary discussion and identify areas for advancement.
NEW Meeting Dates: June 29 – 30, 2022
Registration Deadline: June 13, 2022
Abstract Deadline: May 20, 2022
Learn more HERE.
Learn how to succeed with your next NIH grant: New Data Mandates and Opportunities
Click HERE to access the YouTube video of the recording.
*The slides from the webinar are posted here to download
HIRN Webinar. 2021 Nov. Introduction to the FAIR Data.pdf (132 downloads )
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 (11:00 AM Pacific | 2:00 PM Eastern)
Presented by: 
Jeff Grethe, University of California, San Diego
Topics to be discussed:
Click HERE to access the YouTube video of the recording.
Thursday, October 21, 2021 (2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific)
Presenters:
Raghu Mirmira, University of Chicago
Kyle Gaulton, University of California, San Diego
Martha Campbell-Thompson, University of Florida
Manami Hara, University of Chicago
Andy Norris, University of Iowa
Moderators:
Teresa Mastracci, Indiana University
Scott Oakes, University of Chicago
Presentations on:
“Genetics of Disease in the Exocrine and Endocrine Pancreas”
– Shared Genetic Effects between Risk of Exocrine and Endocrine Pancreatic Disease
– Genetic Factors Impacting Exocrine Function affect Diabetes Risk
“Clinical and Histopathological Correlates of Exocrine-Endocrine Communications”
– Total Pancreas size in those at Risk of T1D and with T1D
– Dorsal Lobe Region Accounts for Loss of Pancreas Weight in T1D with Similar Trends in T2D
“Integrated Pancreatic Blood Flow: Bidirectional Microcirculation between Endocrine and Exocrine Pancreas”
– Directionality of Blood Flow between the Endocrine and Exocrine Pancreas and its Implications for Compartmental Crosstalk
“Endocrine/Exocrine Pancreas Interactions in Cystic Fibrosis”
– Diabetes in Cystic Fibrosis and its Relationship to Loss of Islet Function
– Ductal Disease in Cystic Fibrosis and its Relationship to the Pathology seen in Islets
The following trainees are recipients of the HIRN 2021 Scholarship based on competitive review of abstracts by members of the HIRN Planning Committee.
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Giorgio Basile, PhD |
Giorgio Basile is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Rohit N. Kulkarni at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. He completed his PhD in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism from the University of Rome, Sapienza. His interest for the research in diabetes started during his doctoral studies, when he took over a project aimed to identify genetic causes of familiar forms of diabetes, under the supervision of Prof. Vincenzo Trischitta. His previous work was on the characterization of endogenous factors, as well as bioactive small molecules, that could promote human Beta Cell proliferation. His current research focuses on identifying key regulatory pathways of Beta Cell proliferation and how alterations in gene expression contribute to the loss of function of the Beta Cell in diabetes development.
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Hugh Bender, PhD |
Hugh Bender is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Christopher Hughes’ lab at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental, Regenerative, and Stem Cell Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. During his time in the Hughes Lab, he has developed the Islet-Vascularized Micro-Organ — a novel, biomimetic tissue-on-chip platform for maintaining human islets in the lab. His ongoing work seeks to incorporate human immune cells within this platform to better model beta cell damage during Type 1 Diabetes disease progression |
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Roberto Castro-Gutierrez |
Roberto Castro-Gutierrez is currently a 5th year PhD candidate in the Molecular Biology program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Roberto received his BS degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at El Paso. His research uses genetically engineered stem cell derived beta-like cells (sBCs) to understand the underlying causes of autoimmune diabetes and to develop novel treatment modalities. His recent work established in vitro and in vivo platforms to evaluate the role of PD-L1 and HLA class I proteins in the immune protection of sBCs. He is interested in perusing a scientific career in the field of cell replacement therapy. |
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Dario F. De Jesus, PhD |
Dario De Jesus is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Rohit N. Kulkarni at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, where he holds an ADA Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. De Jesus joined the Kulkarni laboratory initially as a Fulbright Research Scholar during his Master’s studies. He later enrolled in the Graduate Program of Basic and Applied Biology (GABBA) at the University of Porto, Portugal and returned to the Kulkarni laboratory to complete his PhD focused on research related to metabolic reprogramming of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. He is currently interested in mRNA modifications and especially in the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in pancreatic islet cell function and survival in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. |
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Xiaofeng Huang, PhD |
Xiaofeng Huang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Qiao Zhou at the Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his B.S. in Biotechnology from Xiamen University in China and his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China. His current research goal is to develop a technology to derive large numbers of functional insulin-secreting cells from the abundant renewable sources of human gastric stem cells to treat Type 1 Diabetes. |
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Charles Lazimi |
Charles Lazimi is a 1st year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida in the lab of Dr. Ed Phelps. He received his BS and MS degrees in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. While completing his master’s he was hired as a research scientist at L&L Biotech in Gainesville Florida where he developed skills in Molecular Cloning. His Masters capstone project consisted of sub-cloning a beta cell specific promoter into a GABA biosensor construct to detect endogenous GABA release in Human islets. The aim of his current research is to incorporate cloned biosensors into microphysiological systems to better characterize islet-immune interactions and islet neurotransmitter auto/paracrine signaling |
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Charanya Muralidharan |
Charanya Muralidharan is a 5th year PhD Student in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine in the lab of Dr. Amelia K. Linnemann. She received her Bachelor’s in Technology (B. Tech) in Bioinformatics from SASTRA University, India. She received her first Master’s in Science (MS) in Cell & Molecular Biology at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a 2nd MS at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) School of Sciences in Biology. Her initial studies were in the lab of Dr. Susan Walsh where she studied pigmentation genetics in the context of Forensic phenotyping. Her current research is on autophagy in the beta cells in the context of type 1 diabetes by implementing various molecular biology techniques and intravital imaging. |
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Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc, PhD |
Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Maike Sander at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in Cell Biology with Dr. Andrew Ewald. During her time at the Sander lab, she has developed disease models to study diabetes using human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived islet cells. She established an organotypic culture model to vascularize hPSC-islets, which will serve as a platform for islet physiology and drug testing. |
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Benjamen O’Donnell, PhD |
Benjamen O’Donnell is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Hughes and the University of California, Irvine. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Saint Louis University before completing his PhD. in Bioinnovation at Tulane University. His dissertation focused on developing a microphysiological system modeling the effects of type II diabetes on an osteoarthritic synovial knee joint. His current work involves expanding an existing human vascularized micro-organ pancreatic islet model to incorporate circulating immune cells. This model will then be used to investigate the onset of type I diabetes and disease progression. |
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Julia Panzer, PhD |
Dr. Julia Panzer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Alejandro Caicedo. She is trained as a food chemist and completed her PhD in Human Biology at the Technical University Dresden with Dr. Stephan Speier in Germany. During her doctoral studies she implemented the human slice platform to study islets in their native environment. Her current research focus on human islet development and alpha cell dysfunction in Type 1 Diabetes. |
Click HERE to access the YouTube video of the recording.
Thursday, September 9, 2021 (2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific)
Presented by:
Klaus Kaestner, University of Pennsylvania
Paul Wang, University of Pennsylvania
Maria Hatzoglou, Case Western Reserve University
Golnaz Vahedi, University of Pennsylvania
Topics discussed:
– Introduction to the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP)
– Overview of the Pancreas Database (“PancDB”)
– Presentation of PancDB in recent publications (Use Cases)
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