We are interested in pancreatic islet function in health and diabetes. Our research has spanned areas that include biophysical characterization of ion channels; intracellular signal transduction and exocytosis; and the cellular regulation of glucagon secretion. With wonderful international collaborators, some exciting new directions include islet-cell phenotyping by combined patch-clamp and single-cell sequencing; and computational modelling of human islet cell profiles. We are interested in anything that impacts islet function and hormone secretion!

We also run an in-house human islet isolation, banking, and distribution program called IsletCore. More info on this is found here.

Our techniques are mostly cell-based, and include: hormone secretion assays; single cell patch-clamp electrophysiology; and cellular imaging applied to human islets and transgenic animal models.

Our review and perspective papers:

Review on insulin's journey through the body
Review on glycine in type 2 diabetes
Opinion on connecting metabolism to insulin exocytosis
Perspective on signal integration at the exocytotic site
Review on glucagon secretion and the development of diabetes
Review on SUMOylation in the beta-cell
Review on regulation of glucagon secretion by Katp channels
Review on single vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis
Primer on beta-cell function: oscillations and coupling
Review on glucose-sensing in beta-cells
Review on glucagon-like peptide-1
Review on voltage-dependent K+ channels in beta-cells