Alejandro Caicedo
University of Miami, FL·Physiology
The pancreas does two jobs. Small clusters of cells called islets release hormones such as insulin, which come from beta cells and control blood sugar.
- Fields
Physiology
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
pancreatic islets
beta cells
insulin secretion
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Uncover how nutrients sensed in the gut activate entero-pancreatic neurons, using live-animal calcium imaging of pancreatic cells while different contents are perfused through the duodenum in mice.
- Elucidate how enteric neurons pass signals to pancreatic islet cells, using single-nucleus sequencing to define these neurons' gene-expression signatures alongside in vivo genetic and imaging tools.
- Define the role of the entero-pancreatic nerve network in glucose metabolism in normal and diet-induced obese mice, using pharmacogenetic tools that switch the pathway on or off.
- Determine how local insulin from beta cells affects exocrine acinar tissue and the islet microvasculature (pericytes and endothelial cells) as type 1 diabetes develops, using genetic manipulation in mice and diabetes models.
- Determine how insulin shapes neural coordination of pancreas function, including acetylcholine-releasing intrapancreatic neurons, using mouse models and living human pancreas slices from organ donors.
More about the research
The surrounding exocrine tissue makes digestive enzymes. The lab asks how the pancreas coordinates its activity with the gut and across its own tissues, and how this coordination fails in diabetes. One project studies nerves that run from the intestine to the islets. The other asks how insulin released inside the pancreas keeps the neighboring tissues healthy, and what happens when beta cells are lost in type 1 diabetes.
Why it matters
Type 2 diabetes affects about 462 million people worldwide. Mapping the nerve connection between gut and pancreas could reveal new targets in this circuit for type 2 diabetes treatments. For people with type 1 diabetes, many of whom also lose digestive pancreas function, understanding how the loss of beta cells damages the rest of the pancreas could guide future therapies for this complication.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Campbell
Duke University, NC·Physiology
Test whether pericytes, cells lining blood vessels, are the main GIP receptor (GIPR)-expressing cells in fat tissue, using mouse models that mark and lineage-trace GIPR-positive cells over time.
Barak Blum
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Physiology
Test the hypothesis that reducing Robo2 receptors in beta cells, the pancreas's insulin-making cells, is essential for islets of Langerhans to expand successfully when insulin demand rises.
Michelle Kimple
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Pharmacology
Determine how the EP3 receptor affects separate cellular pools of calcium and cAMP in mouse and human beta cells, and how these changes alter insulin secretion and beta-cell mass, using cellular imaging.
The school
University of Miami: 30 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
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