Research Area
Diabetes

Grant Type
Network

Year
2007

Abstract

The Larry Hillblom Islet Research Center network grant is primarily dedicated to supporting research cores in the Center. These cores support the maintenance and use of equipment that is too costly for any one investigator to afford but are of great benefit when shared by a group of researchers that we support in the center. The availability of the research cores in the Larry Hillblom Islet Research Center supported by the Hillblom Foundation has provided an excellent training environment for research fellows, one of the primary goals of the center. An example of such a core is the imaging core that provides state of the art microscopes able to track living cells over time so as to permit direct evaluation of factors that promote survival or loss of cells.

Work supported by the network grant at present includes studies to evaluate the adaptive changes in numbers of pancreatic beta cells during pregnancy, how beta cells grow in normal childhood and adult life and how they are lost in both of the major forms of diabetes (type 1 and type 2 diabetes). We are also exploring new approaches to slow the loss of beta cells in both type 1 and 2 diabetes and are pursuing studies to better understand how abnormal insulin delivered from diseased pancreatic beta cells adversely effects how it functions to control blood sugar levels.