Diego Balboa

DEC1 regulates human β cell functional maturation and circadian rhythm Preza et al. show that DEC1, a circadian clock regulator, promotes mature insulin responses to glucose stimulation in human stem cell-derived islet organoids. DEC1 is restricted to maturing β cells, w...

The transcription factor DEC1 links #circadian rhythms to human β cell maturation, highlighting the essential role of circadian control in generating fully functional SC- #islet organoids #stemcells www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Causal modelling of gene effects from regulators to programs to traits - Nature Approaches combining genetic association and Perturb-seq data that link genetic variants to functional programs to traits are described.

GWAS has been an incredible discovery tool for human genetics: it regularly identifies *causal* links from 1000s of SNPs to any given trait. But mechanistic interpretation is usually difficult.

Our latest work on causal models for this is out yesterday:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A short🧵:

Congrats!!

Specialized signaling centers direct cell fate and spatial organization in a mesodermal organoid model Stem cell–derived mesodermal organoids reveal how signaling centers guide cell fate and tissue organization.

🎉 Our deconstructed, stem-cell–based approach to studying signaling centers and limb-development cell types is out! 🥳 So nice to see it in its final form after the preprint— and huge thanks to the community for all the enthusiasm and interest since then!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The new issue @cp-devcell.bsky.social brings the final form of our opossum heterochrony work www.cell.com/developmenta... And it also brings two great papers from @oliveringe.bsky.social @santoslab.bsky.social and @tobyandrews.bsky.social @rashmi-priya.bsky.social 🙌 great #DevBio from @crick.ac.uk

Transcription start sites experience a high influx of heritable variants fueled by early development - Nature Communications The impact of transcription on germline mutagenesis remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify a mutational hotspot at transcription start sites in the human germline that is significantly ...

I am very pleased to see our work, in which we describe a mutational hotspot at transcription start sites in the human germline, out:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great work from @castellanoed.bsky.social, @vseplyarskiy.bsky.social, Miguel Cortés Guzmán and Clàudia Serrano Colomé!

Several opportunities to join our group as a PhD candidate with bioinformatics or experimental background and interests in #microbiome, #Candida, or #evolution.

👉 IRB call:
www.irbbarcelona.org/en/careers/y...
👉 Inphinit call:
lacaixafoundation.org/en/doctoral-...
👉 EvoMG call
www.evomg-dn.eu

Join us next week for another round of inspiring VGZT talks! 🤩

🗓️ Thursday, December 4th
⏰ 9:30 PST / 12:30 EST / 17:30 UTC / 17:30 GMT / 18:30 CET

Our speakers are
👉 Luca Braccioli (@bracciolilab.bsky.social)
👉 Komal Makwana (on X: @Komal_Makwana4)

See you next week 👋

Your periodic reminder that science is not done by a few selected "stars scientists". Science is done by hundred of thousands. Siloed money mean a few flashy discoveries and a lot of waste. Want to change things? Make funding accessible and stop funding calls with less than 2% success rate.

📣 I hereby make my Bluesky debut to announce that our work linking DNA binding affinities and kinetics 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘰 and 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰 for the human transcription factor KLF1 just got published in Cell! @cp-cell.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Key findings in a thread (1/6):

Defining the role of β-cell IRE1α/XBP1 pathway and its gene regulatory network components in non-obese diabetic mice - Nature Communications Modulating the unfolded protein response (UPR) can induce protective dedifferentiation of β-cells in non-obese diabetic mice. Here, the authors show that β-cell deletion of UPR transcription factor XB...

Our new paper is out now in Nature Communications! We uncovered the function of XBP1 in beta cells of a preclinical model of T1D and identified unique and shared gene regulatory networks driven by IRE1 and XBP1.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

N2B27 media formulations influence gastruloid development Highlighted Article: This work explores the cellular and molecular sensitivity of the mouse gastruloid model system to variations in N2B27 media formulations, highlighting the need for careful media s...

Now out in @dev-journal.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

There's increasing evidence that in organoid/embryoids conditions of cells at start of experiments is crucial/ determines outcome. Much to be learnt still. Taking advantage of mouse #gastruloids, two groups explore this here. Important work to calibrate the field www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered Not with a bang but with a whimper

I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵

Bri2 BRICHOS domain inhibits IAPP amyloid formation and improves beta cell function in stem cell-derived islets under metabolic stress - Diabetologia Aims/hypothesis Accumulation of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) and amyloid formation is associated with beta cell dysfunction and cell death in human islets and may also contribute to graft failure ...

Bri2 BRICHOS domain inhibits cytotoxic IAPP amyloid formation and improves beta cell function in stem cell-derived islets under metabolic stress. #T1D #SC-islets #CellTherapy
link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓

New IJDB issue! Our cover image features an immunostaining of neural crest cells and their derivatives in an Mllt1 E10.5 murine embryo from the paper by Zinck et al doi.org/10.1387/ijdb... Congratulations to the team of @aineurolab.bsky.social for their outstanding contribution!

The 100 yr pursuit for non-injectable #insulin ..Here based on mouse and mini pig data, “a skin-permeable polymer may enable non-invasive transdermal delivery of insulin, relieving patients with #diabetes from subcutaneous injections” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW - Toronto (City), Ontario (CA) job with Taipale Lab, Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto | 12849004 The Taipale lab in the Donnelly CCBR and University of Toronto is looking for a highly motivated Postdoctoral Fellow

We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on induced proximity 🤜🤛 and functional genomics! Join our team in Toronto 🇨🇦 to tackle major challenges in oncology and neurodegeneration. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Our new preprint is online! Viruses, bacteria and parasites use effector proteins to evade immunity and rewire host cell pathways. Together with @AlexanderStark8, we wondered if we could systematically map what these effectors, regardless of their origin, do in human cells. 1/8

New insights into islet ER stress responses, proinsulin biosynthesis, ERAD and ERD1 using β-cell-specific Hrd1-KO mice & rodent (and human islet) β-cells treated acutely with HRD1 inhibitor. jci.org/articles/vie...
@jci.org

🧵(1/12) November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and we have many works coming out from the CIRTN labs focusing on islet biology and diabetes. For the beginning of Nov 2025, we have papers from Drs Thompson, Verchere, Chen, Dhanvantari, Hill, Hoesli, Kin, Levings, Lynn, Riddell, Rutter and Wheeler.

TE x ZFP = Evolution!
Writing this with Olga @orpsf.bsky.social & Didier @trono-lab.bsky.social was a major highlight of my 🇨🇭sabbatical. Such a treat! 🍫Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy piecing it together.

Major new direction in the lab: hacking human cell biology with pathogen effectors (eORFs) - amazing collaboration with @miketilapia.bsky.social lab. Huge congrats to first authors Tomas & He & all co-authors! Check out the pre-print on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An islet-resident macrophage antioxidant program preserves β cell physiology SLC7A11 licenses metabolic and antioxidant activities in islet macrophages, supporting β cell insulin secretion and redox homeostasis.

A new #ScienceImmunology study finds that mice and humans have pancreatic islet-resident macrophages with elevated antioxidant profiles, which could shield β cells from oxidative stress. https://scim.ag/49cqs3M

It's always special when you find your own paper in the table of contents of the journal 😍

"The cis-regulatory logic integrating spatial and temporal patterning in the vertebrate neural tube" -> Now out in its final form

www.cell.com/developmenta...

Measuring mitochondrial membrane potential
@marcliesa.bsky.social , Guillermo Martínez-Corrales et al @ibmb-csic.bsky.social comment on common misinterpretation of mitochondrial membrane potential measurements & suggest guidelines for accurate determination in cells
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Very happy with this comment out today! It was a fantastic teamwork effort, with invaluable input from the editor @embojournal.org and the reviewers. Thanks a lot to all involved! @csic.es @ibmb-csic.bsky.social

Spatially organized cellular communities shape functional tissue architecture in the pancreas Spatial maps reveal dynamic epithelial-mesenchymal niches shaping pancreatic development and function.

🚨 Check out our new paper is now online in its final version!!!
🎉 👏 Congratulations @alejotorrescano.bsky.social who led the study
+ past & current team @labspagnoli.bsky.social
+ collaborators #VigilanteLab @kingslsm.bsky.social

➡️ doi.org/10.1126/scia...

short 🧵 below & more acknowledgments ⤵️

Cadherins modulate the self-organizing potential of pseudo-embryos Gastruloids derived from ES cells mimic embryonic patterning through robust self-organization. Mayran et al. uncover that this competence depends on a cadherin switch regulated by Snai1-driven E-cadhe...

Happy to present the final version of our Cadherin and gastruloid manuscript, online at @cp-cellreports.bsky.social.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Initially in BiorXiv (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) 1/12

A continuous totipotent-like cell-based embryo model recapitulates mouse embryogenesis from zygotic genome activation to gastrulation - Nature Cell Biology The authors identify a chemical cocktail to generate totipotent-like cells, which they then use to build an embryo model. This model captures a developmental spectrum from early embryogenesis to post-...

☕The authors identify a chemical cocktail to generate #totipotent - like cells, which they then use to build an #embryo model. This model captures a developmental spectrum from early #embryogenesis to post-implantation events.
bit.ly/4oHxUZp