February 2024: Congratulations Ms. Tracy Her et al!! Her first paper entitled, Circadian disruption across lifespan impairs glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in offspring" is out! This study sheds light on how night shift work can impact gestational diabetes risk and metabolic health in children! Read here
January 2024: Congratulations Ms. Shannon Flanary on securing an AHA and an F31 Fellowships!!
December 2023: Grateful that our lab received ~100K funding through IBP's Accelerator Award mechanism to support new research initiatives!
November 2023: Congratulations Mr. Seokwon Jo!! Our review paper on the Mechanistic Insights into Maternal-fetal Cross Talk and Islet Beta-cell Development is now out! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37855321/
October 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Megan Beetch on her double achievement! She has been promoted to the position of Research Assistant Professor, and her paper titled "The Influence of Placental mTOR Deficiency on Peripheral Insulin Signaling in Adult Mice Offspring" is a remarkable accomplishment. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37772736/
September 2023: Congratulations to our lab for securing an NIH High Priority, Short-Term Project Award (R56) on Nutrient-sensor O-GlcNAc Transferase Regulation of Autophagy in Homeostatis of Pancreatic Beta-cell Mass and Function! Kudos for Ms. Alicia for winning the Edward Lewis Award and Ms. Clara Kim, Charlotte Hunt and Alex Hausmann for securing UROP awards this fall!
August 2023: Congratulations to our lab trainees Mr. Seokwon Jo and Ms. Alicia Wong for securing 2 oral presentations at EASD in Germany this fall, 2 travel awards from EASD and 2 travel funding from UMN Community Scholars Program!! Excited for them to represent the lab, and to meet our collaborators and mentors.
July 2023: Congratulations Dr. Megan Beetch and Mr. Seokwon Jo. Their paper on Sex differences in pancreatic beta cell physiology and glucose homeostasis in C57BL/6J mice, is out!! https://academic.oup.com/jes/advance-article/doi/10.1210/jendso/bvad099/7230617?utm_source=advanceaccess&utm_campaign=jes&utm_medium=email&login=false
June 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Megan Beetch for earning the esteemed Best Abstract award at IDOM Diabetes Day. We applaud Ms. Briana Clifton for her exceptional achievement in securing funding for the fall of 2023. She has been granted the Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship by the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. We wish Ms. Grace Chung the best in Medical school! Kudos to Ms. Alicia Wong for receiving the Steer Family Award in Diabetes Award, and Ms. Ashley Peters for securing the UPRIME fellowship! Well done to our trainees for their remarkable accomplishments!
May 2023: We're thrilled to congratulate the Team for their successful hosting of the 2023 Midwest Islet Club in Minneapolis. Check out the event at https://mnisletclub.umn.edu/
Our lab, along with Drs. DeWayne Townsend and Victor Barocas from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has received the Lillehei Heart Institute Collaborative Pilot Grant. This grant will support our study on how glucose affects the aortic wall of diabetic animals. We're excited about this new and promising research direction, which will also provide valuable learning and training opportunities for our trainees.
April 2023: Congratulations to our 4th year grad student, Mr. Seokwon Jo for being selected to attend the St. Jude National Graduate Student Symposium- where NIH F31 awardees are selected to visit the institution and interview for post-doctoral fellowships. Hats off to Ms. Alicia Wong for securing a T32 Fellowship in T32 Cardiovascular Inflammation, and to Ms. Briana Clifton for obtaining a University of Minnesota Foundation Student Research grant to support her work on "Storage and Metabolism of Glycogen Cells in Placental mTOR Deficiency Murine Models”.
March 2023: Congratulations to the team!! Dr. Emilyn Alejandro’s 2nd R01 is funded by the NIDDK for your years! Project Title: Placental Insulin Signaling and mTOR Nutrient-Sensing Programming of Offspring Metabolic Health.
February 2023: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro is the Co-Director of a newly funded Inclusive Excellence Training Grant in Cardiovascular Inflammation funded by NIH. https://ibpt32.umn.edu/ Emilyn is also excited to host the Midwest Islet Club Meeting in Minneapolis, May 24-25, UMN Campus. https://mnisletclub.umn.edu/
January 2023: First paper of the year! Congratulations to Wong et al! Overexpression of Pdx1, reduction of p53, or deletion of CHOP attenuates pancreas hypoplasia in mice with pancreas-specific O-GlcNAc Transferase deletion. https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(23)00010-8/fulltext
2022
December 2022: Congratulations to Wong et al! 1st Chapter of PhD thesis is out! Genetic Ablation of the Nutrient Sensor Ogt in Endocrine Progenitors Is Dispensable for β-Cell Development but Essential for Maintenance of β-Cell Mass https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/11/1/105
November 2022: Congratulations to Jo and Pritchard et al! Their paper is out! “Pancreatic β-cell hyper-O-GlcNAcylation leads to impaired glucose homeostasis in vivo.”
October 2022: Congratulations to Root et al! Our second collaboration paper with Dr. Jean Regal's group is out! "Critical Role for Macrophages in the Developmental Programming of Pancreatic β-cell Area in Offspring of Gestational Hypertension," https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36125850/
September 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Megan Beetch for securing one year of T32 training award in Obesity and Metabolism and Ms. Blithe Zaun for securing a UROP award.
August 2022: Lab is excited to receive the IIDP/JDRF-Islet Award Initiative (IAI) to explore Islet O-GlcNAcylation in Hyperinsulinemia-Induced Obesity. Congratulations to Ms. Ashley Peters for receiving the Undergraduate Research Scholarship at UMN.
July 2022: Congratulations to Ms. Alicia Wong, MCDB&G PhD Candidate, for securing a T32 training award. Emilyn and Alicia are both excited to be part of the UMN Interdisciplinary Training Program to Transform Graduate Education In Genetics and Genomics!
June 2022: Emilyn was honored to deliver the American Physiological Society’s Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture, which is awarded to an outstanding scientist each year. The lab is also grateful to receive an R56 funding from NIH NIDDK to support our study on the role of maternal hyperinsulinemia in fetal programming of metabolic disease in the offspring.
Congratulations to Ms. Grace Chung et al., Her paper, entitled, "Placental Insulin Receptor Transiently Regulates Glucose Homeostasis in the Adult Mouse Offspring of Multiparous Dams” is out. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/3/575/htm
March 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Mackenzie Moore et al! Her paper, entitled, “Reduction in O-GlcNAcylation Mitigates the Severity of Inflammatory Response in Cerulein-Induced Acute Pancreatitis” is out.
February 2022: Congratulations to Mr. Seokwon Jo, IBP PhD Candidate, for receiving an NRSA F31 Fellowship, a 3-year funding from NIH.
January 2022: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro received the 2022 Henry Pickering Bowditch Lectureship for her original and outstanding accomplishments in physiology for the top next generation scientists in the field as selected by the American Physiological Society President.
2021
December 2021: Congratulations to Mr. Brian Akhaphong et al! Maternal high-fat diet during pre-conception and gestation predisposes adult female offspring to metabolic dysfunction in mice" has been approved for production and accepted for publication in Frontiers in Endocrinology, section Obesity. Here is a link to the paper.
October 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Mohan and Mr. Jo et al! Pancreatic β-Cell O-GlcNAc Transferase Overexpression Increases Susceptibility to Metabolic Stressors in Female Mice. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/10/10/2801
September 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Mohan et al! OGT Regulates Mitochondrial Biogenesis and Function via Diabetes Susceptibility Gene Pdx1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34462257/
July 2021: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and received a University of Minnesota McKnight Presidential Fellow Award.
June 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Moore et al! " Disruption of O-Linked N-Acetylglucosamine Signaling in Placenta Induces Insulin Sensitivity in Female Offspring” is in-press. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/13/6918/htm
June 2021: Congratulations to Mr. Brian Akhaphong et al! " Placental mTOR-Complex1 regulates fetal programming of obesity and insulin resistance in mice” is in-press. https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/149271.
Kudos to Ms. Alicia Wong for being selected to participate in the UMN Stem Cell Institute Infuse Predoctoral Award Program!
May 2021: Congratulations to Mr. Seokwon Jo for receiving the Steer Diabetes Award from the Medical School, and Dr. Emilyn Alejandro was awarded the 2021 University of Minnesota Council of Graduate Students Outstanding Advisor Award.
April 2021: Congratulations Mr. Seokwon Jo for receiving the Lifson/Johnson memorial award, which recognizes excellence in teaching by a graduate student. Seokwon was a Teaching Assistant for undergraduate physiology students Fall 2020-Spring 2021. Kudos to Seokwon!
March 2021: Kudos to Dr. Mackenzie Moore, “Aortic Cross-Clamping to Provide Differential Fixation by Perfusion” is out! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33740319/
February 2021: Kudos to Mr. Ahmad Essawy, Mr. Seokwon Jo et al.,“O-linkedN-AcetylglucosamineTransferase (OGT) regulatespancreaticα-cellfunctioninmice” is out! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33460647/
January 2021: Kudos to Dr. Amber Lockridge et al., her last PhD research project is now accepted for publication in Cells "Acute D-serine Co-agonism of β-cell NMDA Receptors Potentiates Glucose-Stimulated Insulin Secretion and Excitatory β-cell Membrane Activity". https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/10/1/93
2020
December 2020: Congratulations to Nicholas Esch, Seokwon Jo, Mackenzie Moore on their recent publication titled “Nutrient Sensors mTOR and OGT: Orchestrators of Organelle Homeostasis in Pancreatic β-Cells” You can read review here: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jdr/2020/8872639/
November 2020: Mr. Seokwon Jo’s manuscript entitled, Translational Factor eIF4G1 Regulates Glucose Homeostasis and Pancreatic β-Cell Function, is accepted in Diabetes. Congratulations Jo et al. View the publication here.
October 2020: Congratulations to our post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Megan Beetch for securing a T32 Training Grant with the University of Minnesota Training Grant in Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism.
September 2020: Congratulations to Seokwon Jo, Brian Akhaphong and our collaborators on our recent publication titled "Maternal low-protein diet on the last week of pregnancy contributes to insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction in the mouse offspring" in AJP-Reg, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32877242/.
August 2020: Congratulations to Mr. Seokwon Jo, for receiving the IBP ALLAN HEMINGWAY SCHOLARSHIP - for obtaining the highest grades during the 2019-2020 academic year!
July 2020: Ms. Grace Chung successfully defended her Master thesis entitled “ Role of Placental Insulin Signaling in a normal pregnancy and its effects on glucose homeostasis in the mouse offspring." Congratulations Grace!
June 2020: Two year R21 funding for the Alejandro and Regal lab from the NIH NICHD to study the role of Innate Immune Complement System and Developmental Programming of Functional β Cell Mass. Read more about this grant: https://med.umn.edu/news-events/u-m-researchers-examine-development-type-2-diabetes-offspring-hypertensive-pregnancies
May 2020: Dr. Amber Lockridge successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled " When to secrete and when to rest? Protein O-GlcNAcylation in beta cell functional responses to hyperlipidemia.” To learn more on Amber’s thesis project, read the medical school press release at:https://med.umn.edu/news-events/study-reveals-single-enzyme-orchestrating-insulin-release
April 2020: Amber Lockridge's manuscript titled "Islet O-GlcNAcylation is Required for Lipid Potentiation of Insulin Secretion through SERCA2" has been published in Cell Reports. Congratulations Amber! Read paper here.
March 2020: Congratulations to Ms. Alicia Wong, Mr. Dan Baumann and other collaborators on their recent publication titled "Role of nutrient-driven O-GlcNAc-posttranslational modification in pancreatic exocrine and endocrine islet development" in Development.
February 2020: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro was awarded a grant from Regenerative Medicine Minnesota on her research lab's project titled "Placental mTOR Regulation of Pancreatic Endocrine Cells"
2019
October 2019: Congratulations to Dr. Samantha Pritchard on securing a faculty position at Rush University in Chicago, Illinois.
August 2019: Dr. Alejandro is taking a 3-week sabbatical to train masters students in the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Pineda Cortel, University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.
July 2019: Congratulations Mr. Seokwon Jo on the publication of your paper in JBC: eIF4G1 and carboxypeptidase E axis dysregulation in O-GlcNAc transferase-deficient pancreatic β-cells contributes to hyperproinsulinemia in mice.
July 2019: Welcome to the team Dr. Mackenzie Moore, and congratulations on your T32 training grant. Best wishes to Dr. Ram Mohan on his new position as a post-doctoral associate at the University of Michigan.
February 2019: Congratulations to Mr. Seokwon Jo for his acceptance to the Graduate Program in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UMN.
January 2019: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro was named a 2019-2021 McKnight Land-Grant Professor last week in an announcement by the University’s Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs.
2018
December 2018: Dr. Alejandro wrote her first commentary. Males require estrogen signaling too: Sexual dimorphism in the regulation of nuclear ER- alpha on glucose homeostasis. Diabetes, Accepted, 2018.
November 2018: Congratulations to Dr. Samantha Pritchard on receiving an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Training Grant.
October 2018: Congratulations to Akhaphong et al, Placental Ischemia Causes Loss of Pancreatic Beta Cell but Normal Function in Fetal Rat Offspring. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. Accepted, 2018.
September 2018: Congratulations to the team for two review articles accepted: Mohan et al, Fetal undernutrition, placental insufficiency and pancreatic β-cell development programming in utero American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. Hart et al, Nutrient Sensor Signaling Pathways and Cellular Stress in Fetal Growth Restriction. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology.
June 2018: Congratulations to the lab for receiving our first R01 and to Mr. Brian Akhaphong for receiving a supplement for diversity award.
May 2018: Congratulations to Ms. Amber Lockridge for receiving the Steer Family Award in Diabetes Research (G/S). This award is presented for outstanding research by a graduate in the field of diabetes mellitus.
April 2018: Congratulations to Ms. Alicia Wong for receiving a scholarship from the Department of Biochemistry and Ms. Elina Chung for a UROP award for fall of 2018.
March 2018: Congratulations to Ms. Tate Zemanovic on her acceptance in Graduate School and to Ms. Alicia Wong for receiving the MSROP funding this summer.
February 2018: It's official. Notice of Award letters have arrived for both Ms. Amber Lockrigde's F31 and our R03 grant. Dr. Eric Gustafson, Ms. An Nguyen and Mr. Ahmad Essawy to join our higly motivated team of researchers committed to find ways to stop Diabetes.
January 2018: Happy New Year! What a great start for the lab. Ms. Amber Lockrigde's F31 and our R03 grant on mTOR signaling in the placenta are slated to be funded. Congratulations to Ms. Lensa Ali and Niklas Damberg for receiving UROP funding.
2017
December 2017: Ms. Michelle Wasan, our 2016 summer intern will be moving to Minneapolis to be a pharmacy student at UMN, ranked 2nd in the nation!
October 2017: Ms. Nicolle Myers just joined the lab, and we are very excited to have her join our energetic team and the vibrant community of Diabetes and Metabolism group at U of MN.
September 2017: Dr. Emilyn Alejandro receives 3-year funding from NIH to study the role of O-linked-N-acetylglucosamine Post-translational Modification in Pancreatic Beta-cells Regulating ER Stress and Mitochondrial Function.