Identification of novel cell surface markers of islets and pancreatic progenitor cells

There are no effective cures for type 1 diabetes mellitus, a disease whereby the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Insulin can be given to replace this loss but it is not as effective as endogenous insulin production and leads to hyper- and hypoglycaemia with associated complications. Transplants of insulin-producing cells are a potential curative therapy, albeit with significant limitations currently: it is difficult to measure the purity and potency of cells, be they grown from induced pluripotent stem cells, or harvested from cadaveric donors.

In my PhD, I plan to identify specific potential beta cell surface markers, to allow for benchmarking and comparison between iPSCs or cadaveric donors more easily, and improve purification to potentially allow for better transplant outcomes.