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Meet the new researchers joining LSI

Dr Yu Hsuan Carol Yang

I developed an interest in understanding the mechanisms controlling pancreas development and maintenance during my PhD with Jim Johnson at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). My postdoc at the Max Planck Institute, in the lab of Didier Stainier (Bad Nauheim, Germany), allowed me to further dive into this field as I investigated the in vivo interplay between the autonomic nervous system and pancreatic endocrine cells. I took advantage of the zebrafish model to conduct live imaging, targeted-cell ablation, optogenetic-mediated neuromodulation and genetic analyses and uncovered insights into pancreatic nerve-endocrine interactions during development and physiological adaptations. I joined the University of Exeter in 2020, during the expansion of the Exeter Centre of Excellence for Diabetes Research, to continue my research on the interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine pancreas during development and maintenance of metabolic homeostasis. 

I am interested in investigating the mechanisms underlying neural control of organ formation and healthy maintenance. My current focus is on investigating how neural-pancreas interplay regulates pancreas development and physiology to support glucose homeostasis. We will be conducting mechanistic studies in normal and diseased contexts to identify changes in molecular output from nerve endings, map dynamics of neural and endocrine cell behaviour and intercellular communications, and understand how these dynamics  drive whole organ function and impact on whole animal physiology. We will be using a combination of in vivo zebrafish models, in vitro co-cultures, and computational approaches. These studies will advance our understanding of the neural feedback loops required for pancreas function and adaptation to metabolic demand and age.

I chose the LSI because it offers fantastic opportunities to develop interdisciplinary collaborations with mathematical modellers, cell biologists, biophysicists and optical engineers to accelerate our research goals. Having recently been awarded MRC and Wellcome funding, I am excited to expand my team in an environment that supports interdisciplinary research to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing organ formation and maintenance. I look forward to strengthening existing collaborations with LSI teams and establishing new collaborations that would advance our knowledge of the role of neural-pancreas interplay in development, the maintenance of glucose homeostasis, and disease.

Dr Nikolas Nikolaou

Nikolas is a neurobiologist with a strong background in developmental biology, neuroanatomy and molecular genetics. As a PhD student at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research he investigated cell signalling mechanisms regulating the balance between neural progenitor maintenance and differentiation in the developing nervous system. Nikolas did his postdoctoral research at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (King’s College London) investigating molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating neuronal wiring in the larval zebrafish brain. Nikolas stared his independent research group at the University of Bath before moving to Exeter.

Nikolas aims to combine his background in developmental neurobiology and zebrafish as a genetic model organism to uncover novel processes that influence the development and function of the nervous system. His work will focus on the role of RNA regulators in extra-nuclear neuronal compartments and how their activity controls aspects of local RNA processing. Using an interdisciplinary approach, combining zebrafish genetics with state-of-the-art structural and functional imaging techniques, biophysical methods and mathematical modelling, Nikolas’s group aims to elucidate mechanisms essential for brain connectivity and how these are affected in neurological disease conditions. 

Nikolas chose LSI for its interdisciplinary environment. His group uses molecular cell biology, genetic and imaging approaches to investigate the molecular, cellular, and structural basis of brain development and nervous system activity. However, obtaining a comprehensive understanding of how the nervous system works requires insights from multiple scientific disciplines. Therefore, interdisciplinary research is essential in Nikolas’s research. In particular, Nikolas is excited to work at the interface between developmental neurobiology, biophysics, and mathematical modelling, establishing collaborations with other LSI researchers. Through these collaborations, Nikolas aims to advance the knowledge on the most fundamental questions in neuroscience: how do neurons grow and establish connections with their correct targets during development? What intrinsic and extrinsic molecular signals guide axons and dendrites to form synapses? How dysfunctions in such processes lead to neurological disease conditions? Ultimately, can we utilise knowledge gained to reverse such conditions in the brain?