Summary
Job Title: Professor of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics
Research: Signal transduction in the pancreatic β-cell in health and disease - my chief focus is in using functional genomics at the cellular and whole organism level to dissect the role of genes associated with Type 2 diabetes.
Brief Biosketch: After studying for a PhD in Bristol with Dick Denton FRS on mitochondrial Ca2 signalling, I subsequently worked on the pancreatic β-cell as an MRC travelling Fellow with Claes Wollheim in Geneva. There, working collaboratively with Tullio Pozzan and Rosario Rizzuto in Padua, I established new approaches to exploring the control of insulin release at the single cell level through the use of recombinant target probes and other techniques. I then returned to Bristol, becoming a full Professor of Biochemistry in 2002, and moved to Imperial College in 2006.
My current research is supported by Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and Royal Society Wolfson Merit Awards, by UK Research Council and Diabetes UK grants, as well as by the European Commission Innovative Medicines Initiative in Diabetes (IMIDIA).
Prizes and Awards: I was awarded the Minkowski Prize of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in 2004, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Mary Jane Krugel Award (2005), a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2011), a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (2012) and the Dorothy Hodgkin Lecturehip of Diabetes UK (2014).
Research Support. Supported by Programme and other grants from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, DUK, JDRF, BBSRC, NIH, BHF and EU.
Related links to Section of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics
Publications
Journals
Jha MK, Passero JV, Rawat A, et al., 2021, Macrophage monocarboxylate transporter 1 promotes peripheral nerve regeneration after injury in mice., J Clin Invest, Vol:131
de Jesus DS, Mak TCS, Wang Y-F, et al., 2021, Dysregulation of the Pdx1/Ovol2/Zeb2 axis in dedifferentiated β-cells triggers the induction of genes associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition in diabetes, Molecular Metabolism, Vol:53, ISSN:2212-8778
Akalestou E, Suba K, Lopez-Noriega L, et al., 2021, Intravital imaging of islet Ca2+ dynamics reveals enhanced beta cell connectivity after bariatric surgery in mice (vol 12, 5165, 2021), Nature Communications, Vol:12
Akalestou E, Suba K, Lopez-Noriega L, et al., 2021, Intravital imaging of islet Ca2+ dynamics reveals enhanced beta cell connectivity after bariatric surgery in mice, Nature Communications, Vol:12
Slieker RC, Donnelly LA, Fitipaldi H, et al., 2021, Distinct molecular signatures of clinical clusters in people with Type 2 diabetes: an IMIRHAPSODY study., Diabetes, Vol:70, ISSN:0012-1797, Pages:2683-2693