Almost a decade ago, UO graduate student Jennifer Hampton Hill made a fortuitous find: A protein made by gut bacteria that triggered insulin-producing cells to replicate. The protein was an important ...

The results of in vitro and in vivo studies carried out by researchers at the University of Oregon (UO) and at the University of Utah suggest a potential mechanism by which a microbiome-derived ...

A bacterial protein called BefA disrupts cell membranes -- and this disruption makes vital insulin-producing cells in the pancreas reproduce early in development. The finding points to a possible way ...

The ability of the BefA protein to stimulate beta cell proliferation was mediated by increasing cell membrane permeability. This study provides a mechanism through which gut microbes could influence ...

For her work showing that restoring lost bacterial cues in the gut can stimulate development of insulin-producing cells, potentially protecting against the autoimmune destruction associated with type ...