News

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

May 01, 2024 April 06, 2025

On June 1st, 2024, RenLab started at CIMR (Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Beijing). Welcome to join us!

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

April 20, 2024 April 06, 2025

On April 19th, 2024, Prof. Patrick Gilon from Biomedical Sciences at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) visit Chen Lab and Tang Lab at Peking University. During his visit, he gave a seminar about “Direct and indirect mechanisms of control of glucagon secretion” and had lunch with students. He is the Director of Research of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium). His main interests are to study stimulation secretion-coupling of insulin- and glucagon-secreting cells and interactions between the different cell types of the endocrine pancreas in normal and physiopathological conditions linked to diabetes. One major part of his research was to study the mechanisms of control of the free Ca2+ concentration in various subcellular compartments. He has published approximately 80 articles on these topics.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

March 07, 2024 April 06, 2025

On Mar. 7th, Brain & Endocrine: Back to the Basics conference was held in Hong Kong. Dr. Huixia Ren gave an oral presentation “δ-α cell-to-cell interactions modulate pancreatic islet Ca²⁺ oscillation modes”. In this conference, leading experts shared their latest scientific insights into the intricate mechanisms behind the release of brain signals and hormones in response to external stimuli, as well as how these signals shape our behavior and metabolism. Explore cutting-edge research on the interplay between neuronal circuits and hormone pathways, and their impact on diverse aspects of physiology and disease.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

July 29, 2023 April 06, 2025

On July 29th, the 17th Q-Bio conference took place in Shen Zhen, China. Dr. Huixia Ren contributed to an oral presentation. The annual Q-Bio conference started from 2007 is an intimate and dynamic venue that brings together researchers who aim to advance predictive modeling and theoretical understanding of cellular and molecular biological systems in coordination with quantitative experimentation.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

July 21, 2023 April 06, 2025

On July 21st, the IDF 2023 (International Diabetes Federation Western Pacific Congress 2023)/15th AASD (Asian Association for the Study of Diabetes) scientific meeting took place in Kyoto, Japan. Dr. Huixia Ren was invited to contribute a talk titled “Globally phase-locked alpha and beta cells.” This marked the first in-person meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

June 21, 2023 April 06, 2025

On June 21th, the 84th American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting was held in San Diego. Dr. Huixia Ren, Dr. Beichen Xie and Yi Yu attended the conference and communicated their research via posters sharing. The ADA’s Scientific Sessions, host to thousands of annual attendees, is the premier diabetes conference providing a platform to delve into the latest advancements in diabetes research, prevention, and care.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

June 28, 2022 April 06, 2025

On June 28th, 2022, we released paper « pancreatic α and β cells are globally phase-locked» in Nature Communications（doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31373-6）. The Ca2+ modulated pulsatile secretion of glucagon and insulin by pancreatic α and β cells plays a key role in glucose homeostasis. However, how α and β cells coordinate via paracrine interaction to produce various Ca2+ oscillation patterns is still elusive. To address this question, we combined microfluidic device, α and β cells specific labeled transgenic mice, fluorescence imaging and mathematical modelling. We found the oscillations of α and β cells were globally phase-locked. And the activation of α cells displayed a fixed time delay of ~20 s to that of β cells, β cells activated with a tunable delay after the α cells. As a result, the tunable phase shift between α and β cells set the islet oscillation period and pattern in both the model and experiments. Our study highlights the importance of paracrine interaction to generate various islet oscillation patterns. Huixia Ren, Yanjun Li, Chengsheng Han, and Yi Yu mainly contributed to the work. Prof. Chao Tang and Prof. Liangyi Chen supervised the study.

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

September 30, 2021 April 06, 2025

The 57th European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting (EASD) of the American Diabetes Association in 2021 was held online from September 27th to October 1st. The conference showcased the research progress in the field of diabetes. Ren Huixia gave an oral presentation “Pancreatic alpha and beta cells are globally phase-locked “in the Keeping the balance in islet secretion session “. During the conference, Professor Anders Tengholm host the discussion session. Presentation: https://www.easd.org/media-centre/home.html#!resources/b-pancreatic-alpha-and-beta-cells-are-globally-phase-locked-b

Huixia Ren Principal Investigator

April 20, 2018 April 06, 2025

Prof. Erik Gylfe and Prof. Anders Tengholm from Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University visited Center for Quantitative Biology (CQB) and Tang Lab from the 9th to the 13th of April, 2018. During their visit, they gave two seminars about pancreatic islet hormone secretion and the mechanisms behind. They also experience Chinese culture and food, and shared with students some “old” stories about the islet study.