Metformin Redirects Autophagy from Bulk Turnover to Mitochondrial Clearance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730191v1

Raghu Mirmira, MD, PhD, #ENDO2026 Clinical Science Chair, highlights three must-see sessions for translational clinical researchers—debates and a “meet the scientist” session. Watch now: https://bit.ly/4o2XBV2

Distinct senescent β-cell senotypes differentially drive islet aging and dysfunction. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨 New paper from our lab in BMC Methods! We describe a simple, rapid, and cost-effective method to identify subcutaneously transplanted pancreatic human islet grafts using dithizone (DTZ) staining. #diabetes #stemcells #islets 🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Islet amyloid formation upregulates StAR expression in beta cell mitochondria, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and increased cell death #Islets #BetaCells #Mitochondria #DiabetesResearch link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓

NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”

A survivor of the Kent State Massacre rings the bell on campus today, May 4, at exactly 12:20, the moment his classmates fell, 56 years ago.

Chen et al. provide an overview of the current landscape of human pancreatic tissue resources, coordinated phenotyping efforts and data platforms that are advancing our understanding of diabetes pathogenesis. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📣 Job announcement: we have an open Postdoctoral position in the field of neural stem cell metabolism! Motivated candidates should apply through the official platform under this link, where you can also find more informations: career5.successfactors.eu/career?compa... Please help spread the word!

We are tremendously inspired by our director Mark Anderson's election to the National Academy of Sciences @nasonline.org www.nasonline.org/news/2026-na...

Science is good. We should fund it.

Our newest paper is out online! An Open-Source Code to Analyze Mitochondrial Intracellular Distribution from Fluorescence Microscopy Images Congrats @giologia.bsky.social! portlandpress.com/bioscirep/ar...

"China’s population is four times the size of America’s, and its culture is unabashedly pro-science, even relative to other developed countries." 🧪

Why do intrinsically disordered proteins appear larger than they are in SDS-PAGE? We investigate how sequence properties affect SDS-PAGE mobility using synthetic IDRs. Conclusion: We need to consider both SDS binding and the compaction of protein-SDS complexes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧬 New from Johnson et al! 📄Bi-allelic variants in the non-protein-coding minor spliceosome components RNU6ATAC and RNU4ATAC cause syndromic monogenic autoimmune diabetes

Insights from derivation of human IPS #stemcell derived islet-like or off-target enterochromaffin (EC)-like cells in the pancreas #diabetes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The quiet part being illuminated: there have been very few new awards from NIH this fiscal year, for some very specific reasons 🆘 www.science.org/content/arti...

🚨Dear Bluesky friends, we need your help to advance in 2026 STAT Madness, the March Madness of Science tournament! 🏀🧪 Please vote for our Univ of Michigan Caswell Diabetes Institute team in your bracket before Mon March 9. Thank you! 🙏 www.statnews.com/feature/stat...

A response to the opinion that private $ can replace the NIH. Businesses are not charities. They work on profit margins. Decades of $ is essential for research to progress from an initial discovery to treatment. Most of the dirty work goes on in academic labs. 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

SEL1L-HRD1 endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) is a regulator of PC2 biology and an essential mechanism for maintaining α cell function and glucagon biosynthesis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NHLBI has not funded a single new R01 in FY2026 which began almost 5 months ago

Delighted to share our latest now published in @science.org, where we developed "cyborg" pancreatic organoids to trace and stimulate functional human islet cell maturation. We're excited for the potential as new tools for #diabetes research and therapy!

I am delighted to report that our latest paper has now been published in Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... In this study, we generated and characterised a humanised GLP‑1R mouse model carrying the gain‑of‑function A316T variant using CRISPR/Cas9 knock‑in technology.

Oxaloacetate damages mitochondria by perturbing MIC60-dependent membrane remodeling https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.28.702225v1

Exciting new work for the early detection of T1D onset from my colleague Lonnie Shea's lab here at Michigan! Happy to have played a small role. #GoBlue

A leader in the global fight against smallpox and a champion of vaccine science, William Foege died last Saturday

Just spoke to The Hill about how the dismantling of the NIH is impacting science in America. We still face a cliff of unfathomable heights, w easily 1000+ labs poised to close in the next year due to funding ending. A generation of young scientists lost because there is nowhere for them to train.

NIH budget bill out today. It’s the result of heavy negotiations in Congress over past month+. 🧪 Big pic: NIH budget now is abt more than funding. It’s abt restraining the technical ways NIH is being broken by Proj 2025. And the restraints in the bill are tepid 🤷‍♂️ Also: watch ICE/DHS budget. 🧵1/

Structural basis for late maturation steps of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV within the human respirasome #mitochondria rdcu.be/eZXXC

Individuals with remission of type 2 diabetes after RYGB have better beta cell function than those not achieving remission, but the groups did not differ with respect to beta cell mass. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

House Appropriations minibus bill funding NIH is out now. - $400M increase - Multiyear funding of new awards capped at 2025 levels. - No line item for BRAIN Initiative text here: docs.house.gov/billsthiswee... Screenshots from Dem summary and Sec 240 (multiyear funding text).

Our review on GLP-1R signal compartmentalization is now out in JCI, where we discuss current evidence for the existence of GLP-1R–cAMP–PKA signalosomes at different subcellular locations and the complexity of the GLP-1R spatiotemporal signaling architecture: www.jci.org/articles/vie...

For ~century, we’ve asked: why do proliferating cells ferment glucose even when O2 is around? I’m thrilled to share our latest work @natmetabolism.nature.com, led by @thebiokimist.bsky.social. By leveraging conditional essentiality in HPLM, we propose a provocative new answer to this classic Q. 🧵

New work on the mechanism by which certain deleterious (senescent-like) stromal cells evade immune clearance. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Now online! Structure of pancreatic hIAPP fibrils derived from patients with type 2 diabetes

President Donald Trump’s administration has declined to reappoint Walter Koroshetz as head of the NIH’s neuroscience institute—even though the agency’s director had backed his renewal. https://scim.ag/4pZD0kq

Joel Habener pioneer in molecular biology, mentor, led foundational research that discovered a hormone dubbed GLP-1, which would later become the key ingredient in Ozempic and Mounjaro ⁦‪‬⁩ ⁦‪‬⁩ www.wsj.com/health/pharm...

We're hiring! 🧬 Two positions open in the Parker Lab @umich: 🔬 Postdoc: single-cell multi-omics & statistical genetics 🧪 Lab Specialist: molecular biology & Seahorse assays Great team, supportive culture, exciting science on metabolic disease.

(please share) Immediate #postdoc job opening in the Millman lab at WashU Med (St. Louis, MO). Want to develop next-generation pancreatic islets for the study and treatment of diabetes? Email your CV to apply sites.wustl.edu/millmanlab/

💬 Viewpoint: New H-1B visa restrictions could mean longer patient wait times and fewer clinicians in critical shortage areas, with international medical graduates playing a crucial role in rural and safety-net clinics. ja.ma/3L6KJOm

So much to celebrate this year! This week, the lab donated boxes full of gifts for 3 young children through the Salvation Army as we gathered for our holiday party. Our hearts (and stomachs) are full! ❤️ We can't wait to make new advances for patients with diabetes in 2026! 🥳

⚡️Mitochondria make ATP, the energy that powers life. But in neurons, with axons up to a meter long, how do these tiny power plants stay functional in the right places? We went looking. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

In HLA-predisposed children, family history of type 2 diabetes is associated with delayed progression from islet autoimmunity to diagnosis of type 1 diabetes #T1D #T2D #DiabetesResearch link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓

Our latest now published in @natcomms.nature.com, where we found a new role for mitochondrial programming of SC-β cell fate through PPARα. We're excited for the potential to target mitochondria to improve SC-islets to treat #T1D! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📣 New Pre-print from my lab to wrap-up year!!! 🎉 🎉 led by #GeorginaGoss with support from @alejotorrescano.bsky.social @heathermwilson.bsky.social & @habkcl.bsky.social Pairing #spatialtranscriptomics with #stemcell–derived #multilineage-organoids to elucidate human pancreatic islet development 💥

Lietzke et al. demonstrate that pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells exhibit reduced oxidative and mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism compared to primary human islets, which is related to limitations in key mitochondrial transcriptional networks. 🧪 #PancSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are hiring!. If you hold a PhD in natural science and are passionate about mitochondria, reach out!

Our latest now published in @natcomms.nature.com, where we found a new role for mitochondrial programming of SC-β cell fate through PPARα. We're excited for the potential to target mitochondria to improve SC-islets to treat #T1D! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

PPARα-dependent mitochondrial programming promotes the differentiation of SC-β cells and may be a promising target to improve β cell replacement efforts for #T1D #stemcells #islets www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪