3rd Joint EASD Islet Study Group and Beta-Cell Workshop

Published 15 April 2019

The 3rd Joint EASD Islet Study Group and Beta-Cell Workshop gathered experts in islet cell biology - mainly beta cells - ranging from development to function and with a focus on both type 1- and type 2-diabetes.

Top from left: Jonathan Esguerra, Lena Eliasson, Elaine Cowan, Claire Lyons, NN and Hindrik Mulder. In the front: Alexander Hamilton and Malin Fex. — Top from left: Jonathan Esguerra, Lena Eliasson, Elaine Cowan, Clair Lyons, Amaya Lopez and Hindrik Mulder. In the front: Alexander Hamilton and Malin Fex.

This year the EASD islet study group and the bi-annual beta cell workshop were merged gathering current islet cell research in one and the same meeting. Lund University Diabetes Centre was represented by a group of researchers.

Professor Lena Eliasson was a member of the Scientific Committee. She thought there were several very interesting scientific program points.

- It was clear that technology development is of importance for current islet cells and beta-cell research. Personally I am most interested in beta cell function and found the lecture by Sebastian Barg on exocytosis in beta and alpha cells from human non-diabetic and T2D donors very interesting. Also, Patrick MacDonald's presentation - using patch clamp on individual cells to measure exocytosis and ion channel and then perform RNA sequecing of the same cells - was very interesting.
- A highlight of another kind was that this was the first ISG-BCW meeting where we had an even balance between women and men as well as junior and senior speakers. The committee had this as a goal and we received very positive feedback. Fun!

Dr Malin Fex attended the meeting as a researcher in the field and because two of her projects were presented as posters by her two postdocs (Elaine Cowan och Claire Lyons).

What was the highlight of the meeting in your opinion?
- David Hodson’s lecture “Using conditional approaches to understand alpha-, beta- and delta-cell functional subpopulations”. Or Irene Miguel Escalada’s who talked about mutations in enhancer regions causing diabetes, says Malin Fex.

What do you bring home that is important to your work?
Lena Elisasson:
- The scientific and social network I have and that has been expanded. I have learned about new methods and possibilities to investigate beta cells and their role in developing T2D.
Malin Fex:
- New contacts and maintenance of some old. New data in poster form, which has not yet been published, fantastic lectures and research at extremely high level. Got some new ideas too, mainly techniques that I will be able to apply in our model systems.

Note: The meeting took place in Oxford 1-3 April 2019.
Link to the webpage

Text: Sara Liedholm