News from the Lab
June 2021: Richard Benninger presenting at the NIDDK/CIHR Heterogeneity of Diabetes: Beta Cells, Phenotypes and Precision Medicine Webinar (Remote) .
May 2021: Vira Kravets awarded Career Awards at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund!
May 2021: The lab is excited to receive an ABNexus pilot grant with Mark Borden's lab to develop molecularly-targeted phase change ultrasound contrast agents to track the progression of type 1 diabetes
April 2021: Jennifer Briggs recieves an NSF GRFP award!
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2021/03/24/briggs-receives-nsf-graduate-research-fellowship/
April 2021: Jenn's manuscript that examines theoretically how small populations of highly functional beta cells may influence islet function has been accepted to PLoS Computational Biology.
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008948
April 2021: Anna successfully defended her MS thesis "Investigation of functional subpopulations in pancreatic beta-cells." Well done Anna!
March 2021: Vira Kravets recieves an award as part of the Human Islet Research Network Emerging Leaders in T1D” initiative
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/HIRN-Updated-March-2021-Newsletter.html?soid=1125971089264&aid=ANt291kTohA
February 2021: Arjun's manuscript (a collaboration with Richard Weir's group) which demonstrates optogenetic stimulation of cholinergic fibers to modulate insulin release and glucose levels has been accepted to Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83361-3
December 2020: Dominic successfully defended his MS thesis "Investigating Putative Beta-cell Disease Mechanisms in Type2 Diabetes." Well done Dominic and good luck at UMB!
November 2020: Welcome to the lab Maria Hansen and Chris Schaaf (CSD) who will be rotating in the lab this winter.
November 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the IPITA/JDRF/HSCI Virtual Summit on Stem Cell Derived Beta Cells (Remote) .
September 2021: JaeAnn Dwulet awarded NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Grew news! Jenn will be using computer modeling approaches and novel microscopy approaches to understand how functional beta cell subpopulations influence human islet function.
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2020/10/07/dwulet-and-jarrell-receive-f31-awards/
August 2020: Maria's manuscript that examines the decline in gap junction communication within the islet during high fat diet feeding, and its recovery under caloric restriction accepted to American Journal of Physiology
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00132.2020
June 2020: Welcome to the lab Jennifer Briggs (Bioengineering) who will be rotating in the lab this summer.
June 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the ADA Scientific sessions (Remote), in the 'Islet under Duress in Type1 Diabetes' session. Vira is also presenting in the oral session.
May 2020: Vira and Richard's perspectives article published in Cell Metabolism. This article discusses the application of PatchSeq which combines electrophysiological analysis and single-cell sequencing of human islet cells.
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(20)30194-7
March 2020: David's manuscript describing how sub-micron sized ultrasound contrast agents can provide a diagnostic measure of insulitis accepted to Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15957-8
March 2020: Vinh Pham successfully defended his MS thesis "Contrast enhanced ultrasound measurements of pancreatic blood flow dynamics predicts successful therapeutic treatment of type1 diabetes." Well done Vinh!
February 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the Keystone symposium Islet Biology: From Gene to Cell to Micro-Organ in Santa Fe, NM.
February 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the NIDDK workshop: Imaging the Pancreas in Diabetes, and Benign and Malignant Exocrine Pancreatic Disease in Bethesda, MD. David Ramirez is also presenting a poster covering his work developing ultrasound diagnostic imaging for type1 diabetes.
January 2020: The Benninger lab is delighted to participate in the nPOD slice program, with Helmsley trust support.
December 2020: We are delighted to welcome Bioengineering PhD student Mark Ciccaglione, who has joined the lab.
November 2019: David gave a nice talk at the BMES annual meeting in Philadelphia.
October 2019: Jenn's and Nurin's manuscript detailing how GK heterogeneity and electrical coupling regulate islet function accepted to Biophysical Journal.
https://www.cell.com/biophysj/fulltext/S0006-3495(19)30899-9
September 2019: Vira gave two great talks at the EASD annual meeting in Barcelona and at the Islet Society annual meeting in Maribor (Slovenia).
August 2019: Welcome to the lab rotation students Mark Ciccaglione (Bioengineering) and Samantha Payne Landgrave (Cell biology, Stem cells and Development)!
August 2019: Congratulations to Nikki Farnsworth as she starts her lab at Colorado School of Mines. We are sorry to say good bye, but look forward to seeing her exciting research progress involving islet - extracellular matrix interactions and cell death in type1 diabetes.
https://chemeng.mines.edu/project/farnsworth-nikki/
July 2019: JaeAnn Dwulet passes her comprehensive exam. Well done Jenn! Jenn can now continue to finish her PhD work on modeling and imaging islet cell heterogeneity and cell-cell communication
June 2019: Welcome to the lab Manal Yunes. Manal is a summer research student with the CU Boulder Biological Sciences Initiative.
June 2019: David Ramirez awarded NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Grew news! David will be applying sub-micron scale ultrasound contrast agents for diagnosing and tracking diabetes progression and therapeutic prevention.
June 2019: Richard Benninger concluded his term on the ADA scientific sessions organizing committee. Excellent meeting in San Fransisco and fantastic to have worked with Laura Alonso and Carmella Evans-Molina on this.
May 2019: Benninger Lab (with Aaron Michels, Agata Exner) awarded JDRF Innovation grant "Image-guided therapeutic targeting the islet microenvironment"
April 2019: Vira Kravets's abstract accepted for an oral presentation, Nikki Farnsworth's abstract accepted for poster presentation at the American Diabetes Association 2019 Scientific Sessions in San Fransisco.
February 2019: Nikki Farnsworth awarded mentored CCTSI pilot grant. Nikki will be developing functionalized biomaterials to study the role of islet-matrix interactions and beta cell death in type1 diabetes.
January 2019: Richard Benninger presenting at The European symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
December 2018: Nikki Farnsworth awarded JDRF advanced postdoc fellowship and Vira Kravets awarded JDRF postdoc fellowship. Great work!
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2019/01/09/3917/
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2019/01/04/kravets-receives-jdrf-postdoc-fellowship-award/
November 2018: Nikki's manuscript on GLP1R regulation of islet gap junction coupling accepted to Journal of Physiology.
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1113/JP276106
September 2018: Richard Benninger and David Ramirez on CBS describing their technology to track type1 diabetes
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/09/21/ultrasound-type-1-diabetes/
September 2018: Richard Benninger's review article with David Hodson, Guy Rutter and Craig Dorell accepted.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11892-018-1085-2
May 2018: Matthew Westacott awarded the Graduate School's Outstanding Dissertation award.
May 2018: David Ramirez successfully passes is comprehensive exam - well done!
May 2018: Josh St Clair's manuscript on contrast-enhanced ultrasound accepted to Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03953-y
April 2018: Welcome to the lab Wolfgang Schleicher. Wolf will be a Professional Research Assistant.
April 2018: David Ramirez's abstract accepted for an oral presentation at the American Diabetes Association 2018 Scientific Sessions in Orlando
January 2018: Richard Benninger's review with David Hodson on beta-cell heterogeneity accepted to Diabetes Journal
https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/67/4/537.long
May 2021: Vira Kravets awarded Career Awards at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund!
May 2021: The lab is excited to receive an ABNexus pilot grant with Mark Borden's lab to develop molecularly-targeted phase change ultrasound contrast agents to track the progression of type 1 diabetes
April 2021: Jennifer Briggs recieves an NSF GRFP award!
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2021/03/24/briggs-receives-nsf-graduate-research-fellowship/
April 2021: Jenn's manuscript that examines theoretically how small populations of highly functional beta cells may influence islet function has been accepted to PLoS Computational Biology.
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008948
April 2021: Anna successfully defended her MS thesis "Investigation of functional subpopulations in pancreatic beta-cells." Well done Anna!
March 2021: Vira Kravets recieves an award as part of the Human Islet Research Network Emerging Leaders in T1D” initiative
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/HIRN-Updated-March-2021-Newsletter.html?soid=1125971089264&aid=ANt291kTohA
February 2021: Arjun's manuscript (a collaboration with Richard Weir's group) which demonstrates optogenetic stimulation of cholinergic fibers to modulate insulin release and glucose levels has been accepted to Scientific Reports
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83361-3
December 2020: Dominic successfully defended his MS thesis "Investigating Putative Beta-cell Disease Mechanisms in Type2 Diabetes." Well done Dominic and good luck at UMB!
November 2020: Welcome to the lab Maria Hansen and Chris Schaaf (CSD) who will be rotating in the lab this winter.
November 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the IPITA/JDRF/HSCI Virtual Summit on Stem Cell Derived Beta Cells (Remote) .
September 2021: JaeAnn Dwulet awarded NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Grew news! Jenn will be using computer modeling approaches and novel microscopy approaches to understand how functional beta cell subpopulations influence human islet function.
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2020/10/07/dwulet-and-jarrell-receive-f31-awards/
August 2020: Maria's manuscript that examines the decline in gap junction communication within the islet during high fat diet feeding, and its recovery under caloric restriction accepted to American Journal of Physiology
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00132.2020
June 2020: Welcome to the lab Jennifer Briggs (Bioengineering) who will be rotating in the lab this summer.
June 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the ADA Scientific sessions (Remote), in the 'Islet under Duress in Type1 Diabetes' session. Vira is also presenting in the oral session.
May 2020: Vira and Richard's perspectives article published in Cell Metabolism. This article discusses the application of PatchSeq which combines electrophysiological analysis and single-cell sequencing of human islet cells.
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(20)30194-7
March 2020: David's manuscript describing how sub-micron sized ultrasound contrast agents can provide a diagnostic measure of insulitis accepted to Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15957-8
March 2020: Vinh Pham successfully defended his MS thesis "Contrast enhanced ultrasound measurements of pancreatic blood flow dynamics predicts successful therapeutic treatment of type1 diabetes." Well done Vinh!
February 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the Keystone symposium Islet Biology: From Gene to Cell to Micro-Organ in Santa Fe, NM.
February 2020: Richard Benninger presenting at the NIDDK workshop: Imaging the Pancreas in Diabetes, and Benign and Malignant Exocrine Pancreatic Disease in Bethesda, MD. David Ramirez is also presenting a poster covering his work developing ultrasound diagnostic imaging for type1 diabetes.
January 2020: The Benninger lab is delighted to participate in the nPOD slice program, with Helmsley trust support.
December 2020: We are delighted to welcome Bioengineering PhD student Mark Ciccaglione, who has joined the lab.
November 2019: David gave a nice talk at the BMES annual meeting in Philadelphia.
October 2019: Jenn's and Nurin's manuscript detailing how GK heterogeneity and electrical coupling regulate islet function accepted to Biophysical Journal.
https://www.cell.com/biophysj/fulltext/S0006-3495(19)30899-9
September 2019: Vira gave two great talks at the EASD annual meeting in Barcelona and at the Islet Society annual meeting in Maribor (Slovenia).
August 2019: Welcome to the lab rotation students Mark Ciccaglione (Bioengineering) and Samantha Payne Landgrave (Cell biology, Stem cells and Development)!
August 2019: Congratulations to Nikki Farnsworth as she starts her lab at Colorado School of Mines. We are sorry to say good bye, but look forward to seeing her exciting research progress involving islet - extracellular matrix interactions and cell death in type1 diabetes.
https://chemeng.mines.edu/project/farnsworth-nikki/
July 2019: JaeAnn Dwulet passes her comprehensive exam. Well done Jenn! Jenn can now continue to finish her PhD work on modeling and imaging islet cell heterogeneity and cell-cell communication
June 2019: Welcome to the lab Manal Yunes. Manal is a summer research student with the CU Boulder Biological Sciences Initiative.
June 2019: David Ramirez awarded NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship. Grew news! David will be applying sub-micron scale ultrasound contrast agents for diagnosing and tracking diabetes progression and therapeutic prevention.
June 2019: Richard Benninger concluded his term on the ADA scientific sessions organizing committee. Excellent meeting in San Fransisco and fantastic to have worked with Laura Alonso and Carmella Evans-Molina on this.
May 2019: Benninger Lab (with Aaron Michels, Agata Exner) awarded JDRF Innovation grant "Image-guided therapeutic targeting the islet microenvironment"
April 2019: Vira Kravets's abstract accepted for an oral presentation, Nikki Farnsworth's abstract accepted for poster presentation at the American Diabetes Association 2019 Scientific Sessions in San Fransisco.
February 2019: Nikki Farnsworth awarded mentored CCTSI pilot grant. Nikki will be developing functionalized biomaterials to study the role of islet-matrix interactions and beta cell death in type1 diabetes.
January 2019: Richard Benninger presenting at The European symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
December 2018: Nikki Farnsworth awarded JDRF advanced postdoc fellowship and Vira Kravets awarded JDRF postdoc fellowship. Great work!
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2019/01/09/3917/
https://ucdengineeringnews.com/2019/01/04/kravets-receives-jdrf-postdoc-fellowship-award/
November 2018: Nikki's manuscript on GLP1R regulation of islet gap junction coupling accepted to Journal of Physiology.
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1113/JP276106
September 2018: Richard Benninger and David Ramirez on CBS describing their technology to track type1 diabetes
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/09/21/ultrasound-type-1-diabetes/
September 2018: Richard Benninger's review article with David Hodson, Guy Rutter and Craig Dorell accepted.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11892-018-1085-2
May 2018: Matthew Westacott awarded the Graduate School's Outstanding Dissertation award.
May 2018: David Ramirez successfully passes is comprehensive exam - well done!
May 2018: Josh St Clair's manuscript on contrast-enhanced ultrasound accepted to Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03953-y
April 2018: Welcome to the lab Wolfgang Schleicher. Wolf will be a Professional Research Assistant.
April 2018: David Ramirez's abstract accepted for an oral presentation at the American Diabetes Association 2018 Scientific Sessions in Orlando
January 2018: Richard Benninger's review with David Hodson on beta-cell heterogeneity accepted to Diabetes Journal
https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/67/4/537.long
Older news
Benninger Lab awarded JDRF Innovation grant to study contrast enhanced ultrasound detection of insulitis in type1 diabetes
Matt's manuscript accepted to Biophysical Journal
Nurin Ludin defended her MS - well done!
Matthew Westacott defended his PhD - well done!
Richard Benninger's tenure and promotion approved by the regents
Matt's and Nikki's manuscript accepted to Diabetes
Nikki and Josh's abstracts were accepted for oral presentation at the American Diabetes
Association 2017 Scientific Sessions in San Diego
Josh awarded NIH F32 Fellowship to study gap junction coupling and islet dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes
Aleena's manuscript accepted to PLoS Computational Biology
Matt awarded NIH F31 fellowship to understand the role of cell sub-populations in the islet using optogenetics
William and Samantha both receive UROP awards – well done!
Nikki's manuscript published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Aleena Notary defended her MS thesis - well done!
Richard had a poster at EASD
Nikki had a poster at ADA
Benninger Lab awarded second NIH R01 research project grant to study islet dysfunction in type2 diabetes
Benninger Lab awarded NIH R01 research project grant to study regulation of islet multicellular dynamics
Benninger Lab awarded pilot project grant from the Cooperative Study Group for Autoimmune Disease Prevention
Richard received the Biophysical Society's 2015 Young Fluorescence Investigator Award
Matthew passed his Comprehensive Examination - well done!
Richard's mansucript published in the Biophysical Journal
Chris Wilson defended his MS thesis - well done!
Nikki's manuscript published in the Journal of Physiology
Thomas and Matthew's manuscript accepted to PLoS Computational Biology
Benninger Lab awarded JDRF CDA grant to study islet dysfunction in type1 diabetes
Nikki awarded NIH F32 fellowship to study the mechanisms of cytokine-induced islet dysfunction
Nikki's review published in FEBS Letters
Thomas and Linda's manuscripts accepted to the Biophysical Journal and Diabetes
Benninger Lab (with Homann, Cambell-Thompson) awarded JDRF Innovation grant
Matt's manuscript accepted to Biophysical Journal
Nurin Ludin defended her MS - well done!
Matthew Westacott defended his PhD - well done!
Richard Benninger's tenure and promotion approved by the regents
Matt's and Nikki's manuscript accepted to Diabetes
Nikki and Josh's abstracts were accepted for oral presentation at the American Diabetes
Association 2017 Scientific Sessions in San Diego
Josh awarded NIH F32 Fellowship to study gap junction coupling and islet dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes
Aleena's manuscript accepted to PLoS Computational Biology
Matt awarded NIH F31 fellowship to understand the role of cell sub-populations in the islet using optogenetics
William and Samantha both receive UROP awards – well done!
Nikki's manuscript published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Aleena Notary defended her MS thesis - well done!
Richard had a poster at EASD
Nikki had a poster at ADA
Benninger Lab awarded second NIH R01 research project grant to study islet dysfunction in type2 diabetes
Benninger Lab awarded NIH R01 research project grant to study regulation of islet multicellular dynamics
Benninger Lab awarded pilot project grant from the Cooperative Study Group for Autoimmune Disease Prevention
Richard received the Biophysical Society's 2015 Young Fluorescence Investigator Award
Matthew passed his Comprehensive Examination - well done!
Richard's mansucript published in the Biophysical Journal
Chris Wilson defended his MS thesis - well done!
Nikki's manuscript published in the Journal of Physiology
Thomas and Matthew's manuscript accepted to PLoS Computational Biology
Benninger Lab awarded JDRF CDA grant to study islet dysfunction in type1 diabetes
Nikki awarded NIH F32 fellowship to study the mechanisms of cytokine-induced islet dysfunction
Nikki's review published in FEBS Letters
Thomas and Linda's manuscripts accepted to the Biophysical Journal and Diabetes
Benninger Lab (with Homann, Cambell-Thompson) awarded JDRF Innovation grant