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About Prof. Dr. Marjan Slak Rupnik

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Recent studies have implicated that the same transcription factors that control neuroendocrine differentiation and organogenesis, govern also regeneration in adult glands. Restoration of function in degenerative disease, e.g. diabetes is getting possible with driven regeneration or in vitro differentiation and transplantation. Better understanding of developmental neuroendocrine physiology will help achieving this goal.

Scientific aims:
In the initial phase of our studies we established and improved tissue slice preparation of early postnatal and adult glands like pancreas and pituitary. We adapted methods developed for studying single cell physiology and secretory function for the slice preparation.

We use whole-cell patch-clamp based membrane capacitance measurements, single cell photometry and functional imaging. Major advantages of the approach are fast sample preparation, no chemical treatment and limited physical disturbance of the tissue as well as intact cell-cell coupling and paracrine input.

All these attributes make applicability of our preparation wide, ranging from studies on embryonic developmental stages, lethal transgenic phenotypes in secretory proteins as well as studies of biopsies of tissues testing success of cell replacement therapy models.

For further information, please also see here and here.

A full publication record can be found here.