12th Annual Norwegian Stem Cell Networking Conference

The 12th Annual Norwegian Stem Cell Networking Meeting took place in Soria Moria, Oslo, on 29th and 30th of September.

The Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Research was established in 2009 at the Oslo University Hospital-National Hospital (Rikshospitalet) through a directive from the Norwegian Ministry of Health, with funding administered by the Norwegian Research Council. The Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Research is a facility dedicated to basic and translational stem cell research, technical training, and public education.

Our research group was represented by:

• Luiza Ghila presented an integrated view of different aspects of disease mechanism, such as (1) factors involved in pancreatic beta-cell regeneration and (2) strategies to develop human models for diabetes research.
• Simona Chera talked about the influence of age and aging in beta-cell regeneration.

In addition to the presentations held by PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, there were also two invited international speakers Pierre Bagnaninchi (University of Edinburgh) and Karim Si-Tayeb (Nantes University), and a special session on using EU´s Horizon 2020 program to help fund the stem cell research.

Scientific day at KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research

This year’s Autumn meeting was held at Urdihuset in Bergen and had as a theme Clinics meet basics. After a delicious get-together soup lunch, the meeting was opened by Pål R. Njølstad, who shared some positive comments about the work and the activities of the KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research and bid welcome to the eight new members.

The scientific presentations series started by Bente B. Johansson, who also talked at the EASD meeting in Stockholm about the prevalence of monogenic diabetes in the Norwegian Childhood Diabetes Registry estimated by targeted deep sequencing. Her data further support the need for personalized medical treatment as some children with diabetes 1 might have a genetic type where they can use sulfonylurea tablets instead of insulin injections.

Åsta Sulen presented very interesting data about the neurological and metabolic aspects in children with neonatal diabetes treated with sulfonylurea for 10 years.

After lots of coffee, the second session was chaired by Simona Chera and started with an overview presented by Øyvind Helgeland on quality control steps in genotypic data. His presentation showed very clearly the importance of good input data and the tedious work necessary to organize large scale studies based on questionnaire filled by participants.

Marie Solheim presented a new mouse model of SHORT syndrome caring a mutation in PI3K. This mouse model is based on a gene mutation found in a Norwegian family with diabetes. She also presented her research at EASD: impaired PI 3-kinase signalling in a mouse model of SHORT syndrome.

Eva Ringdal Pedersen and Elin Strand discussed about the importance of the kynurenine pathway in T2D patients and its correlations in rats treated with PPAR agonists.

The third session, chaired by Gunnar Mellgren, focused on adipocytes, obesity and lipogenesis. Simon Dankel presented very interesting data about the importance of an amino acid transporter, SLC7A10, in adipocyte energy metabolism and insulin resistance. Johan Fernø made a nice review on the relation between immune and fat cells, suggesting a cause-effect on insulin resistance in metabolic unhealthy obese individuals. The last talk, before the networking dinner, was on SRC-2, which regulates hepatic gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis, by André Madsen.

The diabetes stem cell group talks at BSCC Meeting

The annual meeting of BSCC took place in Solstrand, Os, between August 31 and September 1.

Bergen Stem Cell Consortium (BSCC) is a research initiative focused on stem cell research in Western Norway, supported by Helse Bergen health trust. The BSCC is formed by six research groups that work in the field of stem cell research and share the goal of generating basic scientific knowledge about the use of stem cells and introducing personalized stem cell-based treatment.

Our research group was represented by:

• Luiza Ghila talked about factors involved in pancreatic beta-cell regeneration
• Heidrun Vethe presented a quantitative proteomics analysis of differentiating human induced pluripotent stem cells
• Yngvild Bjørlykke showed how to use selected reaction monitoring to assess pathway activity during differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells

The meeting started with a key note presentation by Michele Cottler-Fox about the cord blood banking and the difficulties of working with embryonic stem cells in US; followed by the presentation of the Stem Cell Center in Oslo by Joel Glover. Susanna Miettinen showed how to use the autologous adipose stem cells to reconstruct cranio-maxillofacial hard-tissue defects, while Rosaria Giordano talked about the experience of the cell factory in ATMP manufacturing and clinical use. The key note presentation series was finished by Pedro Herrera discussion on in vivo transdifferentiation of pancreatic islet cells.

Helge Raeder received The Novo Nordisk Foundation grant

After careful evaluation by the Nordic Research Committee, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has decided to award a 1 year grant of 500.000 DKK to support Helge’s project: “A stem cell differentiation approach to study development of diabetes and pancreatic disease” [Endokrinologisk forskning – Norden].

We can now continue our work on differentiating our newly generated iPSC from human fibroblast into pancreatic cells.

Our very first iPSC colony created in Bergen

After several weeks of careful planning and due to sustained efforts of our group members we were able to create our first colony of induced pluripotent stem cells. We used as a starting material the fibroblasts donated by diabetic patients, and episomal reprogramming. Good work Heidrun, Yngvild and Constantin!

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell–like state by being forced to express genes and factors important for maintaining the defining properties of embryonic stem cells.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka made a groundbreaking discovery, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: a new way to turn adult, specialized cells into stem cells. These laboratory-grown stem cells are pluripotent – meaning that they can make any other type of cell in the body. Only embryonic stem cells are naturally pluripotent, but Yamanaka’s work allows that (theoretically) any dividing cell of the body can now be turned into a pluripotent stem cell.

How are the iPS cells made? Yamanaka added four genes to skin cells from a mouse, which started a process called reprogramming and the skin cells were converted into induced pluripotent stem cells within 2 – 3 weeks. Now it is possible to do this with human cells, also.

Constantin Berger joined the lab

Before coming to Bergen, Constantin Berger was a Bachelor student in the research group of Marco Metzger, in Wuerzburg.  During his bachelor thesis, he worked on the differentiation of mESC to intestine cells (title: “Time-dependent characterization of intestine cells derived from murine embryonic stem cells in vitro”). He is currently doing the master program “Biomedical Science” at the Julius-Maximilians Universitity in Wuerzburg (due date September 2016).

He applied and received an ERASMUS scholarship for 3-months student apprentice in our laboratory. Constantin would like to gain a deeper insight into different fields of tissue engineering and, therefore, he is very interested in the research work with iPS cells. Also he was very excited to work with decellularized biological matrices, which was his main work subject at the institute in Wuerzburg.

Constantin will stay in Bergen until the end of October, working on a shared project between our group and Kamal Mustafa’s.

New Associate Professor: Simona Chera

We wish to congratulate Simona for her new position: Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Science, UiB.

Simona defended her PhD in biology at the University of Geneva in 2008 in the laboratory of Prof. Brigitte Galliot where she worked with the genetic control mechanisms of cellular remodeling in Hydra. Since then she has been a postdoctoral fellow at Prof. Pedro Herrera’s laboratory at the University of Geneva. During this period she worked with pancreatic beta cell regeneration and cell plasticity. She has been a key co-author of two papers in Nature related to conversion (transdifferentiation) of alpha cells to insulin-producing beta cells and delta cells into insulin producing cells.

She is now working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine K2, UoB. She recently received the Novo Nordisk Foundation of Excellence Project 2015 and Young Research Talent grant from the Norwegian Research Council.

Simona’s work is presently focusing on understanding the causes of the progressive β-cell decay occurring in pathologic conditions like MODY (Mature Onset Diabetes of the Young). More details: here.

Simona Chera received The Novo Nordisk Foundation Excellence Project grant

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Excellence Project 2015 consists of up to four five-year grants of 5 million Danish kroner each within the fields of basic, translational and/or clinical endocrinology research. More details here.

The goal of Simona’s project “Characterizing and reversing β-cell senescence and proliferation quiescence in monogenic diabetes” is to elucidate and reverse the molecular age-switch controlling the homeostatic gradual decay and proliferation quiescence of β-cells in a form of monogenic diabetes.

You are all invited to the Fellowship Award Celebration 2015 on April 28 at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Tuborg Havnevej 19, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark.

Luiza Ghila joined the lab

Before coming to Bergen, I was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer (maître-assistant) in the laboratory of Prof. Pedro Herrera, at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, in Switzerland. In the past 4 years in this position, my research focused on pancreatic β-cell regeneration and cell plasticity, and recently, we were able to uncover a second age-dependent regenerative mechanism involved in spontaneous murine pancreatic regeneration (Chera, Baronnier, Ghila et al. (2014) Nature). Furthermore, we characterized the signals governing islet cell conversion upon massive β-cell ablation in adult mice, results that are now part of another manuscript in preparation (Thorel*, Ghila* et al., in preparation). Moreover, I have implemented, adapted and systematically used a technique for transplanting mouse and human islets or purified mouse and human islet cells (FACS) into the anterior chamber of the eye of NSG host mice, as previously described in scientific literature. With this minimally invasive technique, transplanted islets/sorted-cells engrafted on the iris are accessible for recurrent live imaging and analyses. Using this technique I was able to visualize the ablation of β-cells and α-to-β conversion phenomena, as well as modulating this process using local or general administration of different compounds.

New article: Diabetes (March 2015)

An article about the work in our lab was published in the Norwegian patient-journal “Diabetes” (March 2015). The article, in Norwegian, can be read here: Vedlegg or on the UiB website (click here).