New research details the microbial origins of Type 1 diabetes

#Type1diabetes #microbiota

Almost a decade ago, UO graduate student Jennifer Hampton Hill made a fortuitous find: A protein called Beta cell expansion factor A or BefA made by gut bacteria that triggered insulin-producing cells to replicate. The protein was an important clue to the biological basis for Type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune disease in which the pancreas can’t make insulin.Alongside other colleagues, he has now uncovered new insights into what BefA does and why bacteria make it.

In their most recent paper, Hill and colleagues took a deeper look at BefA. They captured detailed images of BefA’s structure, to identify the parts of it that interact with cell membranes. Then, through a series of experiments in zebrafish, mice and cultured cells, the researchers sketched a picture of BefA’s function.

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