Our mission is to investigate the molecular mechanisms causing gender and sex specific differences in diabetic dyslipidemia and to develop novel personalised treatment strategies.

Our discovery of inceptor, a novel and druggable insulin inhibitory receptor, is a significant milestone for diabetes research as the scientific community celebrates 100 years of insulin and 50 years of insulin receptor discovery. The blocking of inceptor function leads to an increased sensitisation of the insulin signaling pathway in pancreatic beta cells. This might allow protection and regeneration of beta cells for diabetes remission.

We study the molecular basis of pancreatic lineage specification as well as islet cell development, maturation, heterogeneity, function, and regeneration across species. We investigate epigenetic, transcriptional, and proteomic features in mouse, pig, and human islets in order to uncover and functionally interrogate the driving factors and molecular programs behind the changes in islet cell phenotypes.

The “Intestinal stem cell” group aims to decipher the molecular mechanisms driving intestinal stem cell lineage decisions in order to identify new druggable targets for the treatment of diet-induced intestinal dysfunction. In particular, we would like to understand how stem cell niche composition and mechanics regulate cellular differentiation and if niche composition and mechanics are altered in obesity and diabetes and contribute to diet-induced intestinal dysfunction.

Our group aims to advance the generation of human stem cell-derived islet-like clusters (SC-ILCs). Human pancreas development is not well understood and thus current protocols result in inefficient and impure SC-ILCs with limited functionality. Therefore, the Beta Cell Replacement group focusses on deciphering essential processes during human pancreas development and establishes new approaches to generate improved SC-ILCs.

Using CRISPR/Cas 9 technology Dr. Burtscher and his team is generating numerous fluorescent iPSC reporter lines which are being used to investigate how alpha-, beta- or other endocrine cells are formed, how these lineage decisions are regulated, and how mature cell types can be differentiated in a culture dish.

We study the programs underlying pancreatic formation and function to design novel strategies for diabetes therapy and tissue engineering. Specifically, we explore the cellular and molecular processes that coordinate endocrine cell morphogenesis, differentiation, and function.

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