Grapin-Botton Lab UPGRA
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Research
Pancreas development and cancer
Our goal is to understand how the pancreas forms during development. The long term medical purpose is to use this information to generate replacement cells for patients suffering from diabetes and to understand pancreatic cancer progression.
To address these questions, we use the mouse and chick model organisms.
- We have shown that the pancreas primordium is induced by signals from the environment including FGF4 and retinoic acid. These molecules have since been used to generate beta cells from embryonic stem cells.
- We have discovered new targets of two transcription factors that allow for pancreas progenitor expansion and subsequent exocrine differentiation (Ptf1a) and endocrine cell induction (Ngn3).
- Ongoing research based on imaging and on the use of genetically modified mice explores the importance of pancreas architecture in the differentiation of insulin-producing b cells, with relevance to b cell production from ES/iPS cells and to monogenic diabetes.
- We have established optical coherence microscopy as a useful mean to follow diabetes progression live in a single animal.
More...
Fields studied at Grapin-Botton Lab
Pancreas bud induction
Transcriptional control of pancreas differentiation
Role of pancreas architecture in cell differentiation
Imaging pancreatic islets
Pancreas cancer
Contacts
Head of laboratory:
Prof Anne Grapin-Botton
EPFL-SV-ISREC-UPGRA
SV 2824 (Building SV)
Station 19
CH-1015 Lausanne
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Fax: +41 (0) 21 693 0740