Four-dimensional Super-Resolution imaging in living intact pancreatic islets

Diabetes is a world-wide problem caused by either altered insulin secretion and/or response to insulin in the organism. Insulin is a hormone, specifically produced and secreted by beta-pancreatic cells and regulates the metabolism in the organism. A relatively new treatment for Type-1 Diabetes is pancreatic islet transplantation. Pancreatic islet transplantation stabilises glycaemic control in Type-1 diabetes; notably, Scotland has world-leading expertise in this therapy and a highly successful transplantation programme. Therefore, much fundamental and translational biology remains to be determined.
My PhD aims to study the release of insulin at the level of intracellular granule pools in so-called β-Cells in situ within pancreatic islets, before and after transplant, using mouse models and human donor islets, combined with high-resolution 4-D microscopy and molecular biology. Additionally, I am working on different projects to understand more about pancreatic islets response to the isolation process pre and post-transplant. Mitochondrial density and shape could be used as a proxy for prediction of the clinical performance. International collaboration to try different fluoroprobes, labelling alpha and beta cells. Using different microscopy techniques to achieve super-resolution. In my talk, I will discuss the background to the project, along with some early data I have acquired.