Katherine Perez of the Bhatnagar Lab presents at the 2025 Midwest Islet Club Meeting in Indianapolis. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) showcased their latest findings at the 17th Annual Midwest Islet Club (MIC) Meeting, May 7-8, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Midwest Islet Club is an annual gathering that brings together both established and early-career investigators from across the Midwest to share advances in pancreatic islet cell biology and foster scientific collaboration. Pancreatic islet cells, including insulin-producing beta cells and glucagon-producing alpha cells, are critical to understanding the pathophysiology of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Representing UCDC at this year’s meeting were researchers from the laboratories of Sushant Bhatnagar, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, and Weidong Wang, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Genetics.
In the session on Beta Cell Development, Maturation and Adaptation, Katherine Perez from the Bhatnagar Lab presented her work titled, “Tomosyn-2 Regulates β-Cell Proliferation and Functional Maturity in Neonatal Islets.”
In the Islet Physiology and Function session, Temitayo T. Bamgbose, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Wang Lab, presented, “Prokineticin 2 Promotes Beta-Cell Proliferation.”
This year’s MIC meeting was hosted by the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases. UAB previously hosted the MIC meeting in 2022 (virtually) and in 2014.
“MIC is a unique forum that draws young scientists from across the country and provides students and trainees, in particular, a valuable opportunity to present their work and receive constructive feedback,” said UCDC Director Anath Shalev, M.D. “We are proud to see UCDC researchers actively participating each year in this important meeting focused on pancreatic islet cell biology, an important area of study in our center.”