Hospital Clinic de Barcelona (IDIBAPS)

Infrastructure and Resources:

IDIBAPS is Spain's most productive research Hospital. The Genomic Programming of Beta Cells lab also forms part of CIBERDEM, a Spanish Diabetes Research Center. As from 2010, it will move to a larger space forming part of a large metabolic disease programme in a new research centre in the same campus (CIB Ester Koplowitz). It collaborates with clinical, development, molecular and systems biology investigators throughout Europe and the US.  The group includes the PI Jorge Ferrer, 5 ERs, and 3 ESRs. The group's expertise is in using mouse and human models to study beta-cell transcription and human diabetes.

Partner Website:

Jorge Ferrer lab: http://www.betacellregulation.net

Training:

The lab provides a rich training environment in beta-cell development and regeneration, transcriptional regulation, epigenetics and genomics, mouse genetics, and monogenic diabetes.  It holds two regular weekly meetings in English, thus facilitating the participation of foreign trainees.

Publications:

1. Gaulton KJ *, Nammo T *, Pasquali L *, Simon J , Giresi PG , Fogarty MP , Panhuis TM , Mieczkowski P , Secchi A , Bosco D , Berney T , Montanya E , Mohlke KL , Lieb JD , Ferrer J. A map of open chromatin in human pancreatic islets. Nat Genet. 2010 Mar;42(3):255-9. Epub 2010 Jan 31 *equal contribution
2. Solar M*, Cardalda C*, Houbracken I*, Martín M, Maestro M, De Medts N, Xu X, Grau V, Heimberg H, Bouwens L, Ferrer J. Pancreatic exocrine duct cells give rise to insulin-producing ß-cells during embryogenesis but not after birth. Dev Cell, 2009 Dec; 17 ( 6): 849-860. *equal contribution
3. Boj SF, Parrizas M, Maestro MA, Ferrer J. A transcription factor regulatory circuit in differentiated pancreatic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Dec 4;98(25):14481-6. Epub 2001 Nov 20.