Jennifer Hampton Hill is a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Utah Health and JDRF postdoctoral fellowship recipient.

Tell us a little about yourself and your research.
I work under the joint mentorship of Drs. June Round and Charles Murtaugh studying how the resident microbiota can influence development of insulin-producing beta-cells in the pancreas. The microbiota is an underappreciated source of novel bioactive molecules that have evolved with animals. We are interested in finding specific microbes or microbial products that influence beta-cell development such that we might prevent beta-cell loss and/or restore endogenous insulin production for patients with T1D. During my graduate career in the lab of Dr. Karen Guillemin at the University of Oregon, we identified one such bacterial product that can increase beta-cell mass in zebrafish. Now at Utah, we are working towards understanding whether this molecule can impact mammalian beta-cells in the same way. To learn more about this work you can read the original publication from 2016 here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/20145#s4

 

Why did you decide to become involved in type 1 diabetes research?
I have always been very interested in the biology of animal development. After graduating college, this interest led me to a fellowship studying pancreatic development, specifically the pathways involved in insulin-producing-beta-cell renewal. Unexpectedly, I ended up staying in this field all the way through grad school, and now into my postdoctoral fellowship. So, I guess I sort of fell into the field of T1D research early on in my career, and as my career developed, so has my involvement in the T1D research field.

 

As a researcher, what are you most proud of?
As a younger scientist who is only in the middle of my postdoc, I am most proud of how my project has grown since its inception, and opened up a wider scope of ideas providing opportunities for other research trainees to work on too.

 

What is the greatest challenge you face in your research?
One of the greatest obstacles in the field of beta-cell replacement research is the unknown nature of human beta-cells. In our work, we have to use animal models to accomplish a majority of our experiments and, more often than not, beta-cells from these models are slightly different from those in humans. This means that an exciting result in a fish or a mouse might not have the same effect in a human. A better understanding of the differences between human and other animal islets will help to overcome this challenge in the future.

 

What do you appreciate most about working with JDRF?
When I began my fellowship with the JDRF, I was pleasantly surprised about how they prioritize connecting their scientific researchers to individuals living with T1D. Often times, scientists are distanced from the humans that their research could have a direct impact on. It is incredibly gratifying to have a direct connection with the T1D community, and I think that feeling goes both ways. It definitely seems to foster a sense of teamwork, a sense that we are in this goal (of finding a cure) together.

 

As a close friend of our local JDRF chapter, what can we do to help you in your research?
As a recipient of a JDRF postdoctoral fellowship, I’m not sure I can ask for any more support than the incredible amount I’m already receiving. I’m at such an early stage of my career that I really appreciate all the career development and networking opportunities I have access to through the foundation.

 

What would additional funding mean for your research?
If I’m successful at obtaining additional funding for my work, it would help me to move forward with my own career and take the next step of starting my own lab. A successful research project seems to breed more work than one person can handle, and the best way to solve that problem would be to have my own lab with lots of people working on all these questions!

 

What does a world without type 1 diabetes mean to you?
It has been nearly a century now since the discovery of insulin and its subsequent use to treat T1D. While this was a monumental step in this fight, the large amount of time that has passed since then has revealed that fully curing this disease will involve solving an incredibly complex biological problem. A world without diabetes would represent countess hours of research effort built up over many years by the collective scientists who have all worked on this problem. It would be a huge feat of human effort that I would be very proud to have contributed to.

 

What is your favorite 80s movie?
There are so many great ones, that this is a nearly impossible question! I’m going to say The Princess Bride, but The Terminator and the Indiana Jones movies are close behind.

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