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NIDDK Announces Successful Applicants for BCBC Participation
Jun. 15, 2005 - NASHVILLE, TN
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has announced the successful applicants for participation in the Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC), beginning August 1, 2005.
Nine new projects, consisting of seven new U-01 projects, one new U-19 project, and one continuing U-19 project, will receive funding. One of the new U-01 projects is for a Coordinating Center. In addition, the BCBC will also consist of one currently funded U-01 project and two intramural NIDDK scientists.
The 29 scientists listed below will be invited by the NIDDK to a kick-off meeting in Nashville, TN on August 25-26, 2005. This meeting will be focused on establishing collaborations within this new group. Future events, such as scientific retreats, will be open to broader participation, including students, post-doctoral associates and other BCBC scientists.
New U-01 Projects:
Novel Reagents for Beta Cell Biology
? Markus Grompe (PI) ? Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland , OR
? Richard Goodman ? Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland , OR
Transgenic Models of Inducible Diabetes
? Pedro Herrera (PI) ? Universit? de Gen?ve, Geneva, Switzerland
Endodermal Induction and Pancreatic Specification from ES Cells
? Gordon Keller (PI) ? Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
? H. Teresa Ku ? Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Mechanisms of Pancreatic Beta Cell Regeneration
? Doug Melton (PI) ? Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
? Yuval Dor ? Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Defining the Role of Nkx2.2 and NeuroD in Regulating Islet Cell Fate
? Lori Sussel (PI) ? University of Colorado, Denver, CO
? Jackie Lee ? University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Gene Regulatory Signals for Beta Cell Development
? Kenneth Zaret (PI) ? Institute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, PA
Coordinating Center for the Beta Cell Biology Consortium
? Mark Magnuson (PI) ? Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
? Ole Madsen ? Hagedorn Research Institute, Gentofte, Denmark
New U-19 Projects:
Mechanisms of Pancreas Development
? Mark Magnuson (PI) ? Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
? Ray MacDonald ? University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
? Roland Stein ? Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
? Chris Wright ? Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Pancreatic Endocrine Development and Regeneration
? Palle Serup (PI) ? Hagedorn Research Institute, Gentofte, Denmark
? Gerard Gradwohl ? INSERM, Strasbourg, France
? Anne Grapin-Botton ? ISREC, Epalinges, Switzerland
? Harry Heimberg ? Diabetes Research Center, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium
? Pedro Herrera ? Universit? de Gen?ve, Geneva, Switzerland
? Ole Madsen ? Hagedorn Research Institute, Gentofte, Denmark
? Ahmed Mansouri ? Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, G?ttingen, Germany
? Maike Sander ? University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
? Raphael Scharfmann ? INSERM, Paris, France
? Henrik Semb ? Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Continuing U-01 project:
Functional Genomics of the Beta Cell
? Klaus Kaestner (PI) ? University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
? Josh LaBaer ? Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
? Chris Newgard ? Duke University, NC, USA
? Chris Stoeckert ? University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Intramural NIDDK participants:
? Marvin Gershengorn ? NIDDK, Bethesda, MD
? David Harlan ? NIDDK, Bethesda, MD
Brief History and Description of the BCBC:
The BCBC was formed in September 2001 to bring a team-based approach to studies of the endocrine pancreas in order to accelerate progress in achieving a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Scientific progress over the past four years provided a solid justification for continuing the BCBC, and for further enhancing its operations.
The BCBC seeks to advance the science of beta cell biology and to achieve technological breakthroughs in basic disciplines such as developmental biology, stem cell biology, mouse genetics, and bioinformatics. The team-based approach of the BCBC facilitates the ability of leading investigators to work together so as to accelerate the development of key reagents, assays and new strategies for the development of novel cellular therapies in diabetes.
The scientific goals for the BCBC are to (1) understand the developmental pathways required to produce a fully functioning pancreatic islet (Beta Cell Development), (2) to understand the mechanisms of beta cell regeneration in adult animation and human islets (Beta Cell Regeneration), and (3) to understand the nature of stem/progenitor cells during normal pancreatic development and in adult pancreatic islets (Stem Cell Biology).
Resources developed by the BCBC will be made available to the broader scientific community. Distribution of research tools such as monoclonal antibodies to factors important in pancreas development, genetically-modified ES cells mice, and other reagents and information such as microarray data will be accessible to the community as a whole, soon after development.
All currently available resources and information are described on the BCBC website.
For additional information on the RFAs that solicited applications for participations in the BCBC please refer to the following news releases on the BCBC website:
NIH Releases RFAs for Participation in the Beta Cell Biology NIH Releases New Addendum to RFAs for Participation in the Beta Cell Biology Consortium.
For more information about the BCBC, please contact us at or call 615.322.6562.
