2025 PRESENTER PROFILES
States of the Beta Cell
Sunday, June 22, at 8:00 a.m. CT
Room W196 A • McCormick Place Convention Center
The Connected State of the Beta Cell
Vira Kravets, PhD
Assistant Professor,
University of California San Diego
What is your presentation about?
It will touch on why functional beta cell subpopulations are thought to control the islet-average responses to glucose and how this may manifest in diabetes. Some examples of cell-autonomous factors will be heterogeneity in KATP channel conductance in beta cells, and examples of non-autonomous will include heterogenous metabolic and hence electrical responses of beta cells mediated via glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor interactions with the neighboring alpha cells.
How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
The impact of this research lies in developing the background of therapies targeted toward specific beta cell subpopulation for diabetes. It will also put into context the effects of GLP-1-based medicines locally in pancreatic islets. Additionally, it will inform researchers and clinicians who develop stem-cell-derived pancreatic islets for transplantation, as islet composition reflects its function.
How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
I came from the field of physics (optics) and nano-chemistry, where I gained skills in various sophisticated spectroscopy and microscopy techniques as well as computational simulations. My postdoctoral adviser, Dr. Richard Benninger (as well as his adviser, Dr. Dave Piston), were also physicists who paved the path into islet physiology and diabetes research. I spent five years at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes in Aurora, Colorado, surrounded and trained by world leaders in diabetes research and care, which turned me into an islet physiologist with an unconventional background.
