Welcome to the Kimmel Lab

Islet Development and Glucose Regulation

Our research is focused on pancreatic islet development, islet function, and metabolic disturbances in diabetes, using zebrafish as a model organism. A main interest is to use advanced imaging and analysis approaches to determine the cellular mechanisms controlling pancreatic islet cell coalescence, especially how intracellular motility is triggered and coordinated by extracellular signals and cell-cell interactions. In addition, our group uses the pdx1 mutant zebrafish to investigate metabolism relating to glucose homeostasis in zebrafish, and to explore the pathogenesis of diabetic complications.