The speaker is Ibn Rushd Fellows. The candidates are supposed to give a seminar to document their progress at least once a year.

Abstract:
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the most common form of diabetes characterized by high blood glucose levels usually due to the inability of the body to respond to insulin, also known as insulin resistance, in combination with a relative or absolute decrease in insulin secretion from the pancreatic islets. Beta-cells within the pancreatic islets synthesize and secrete insulin to maintain optimal blood glucose levels and beta-cell dysfunction remains central to diabetes pathogenesis. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with altered risk for T2D, but the underlying genes and molecular mechanisms leading to disease are poorly understood. Most of the identified genetic signals associated with T2D risk are largely localized to non-coding DNA sequence and influence regulation of unknown genes hindering immediate biological and clinical insight. In the Translational Genomics of Diabetes Lab at Stanford, Dr. Alghunaim has been addressing this challenge using an authentic human pancreatic beta-cell (EndoC-βH1) line as a model to: 1) identify the underlying molecular mechanism of established T2D risk gene, 2) couple genetic discoveries from large scale GWAS with mechanistic studies to determine the role of novel candidate genes associated with altered insulin secretion, and 3) generate a stable human pancreatic beta-cell (EndoC-βH1) line expressing an inducible dCas9-KRAB construct for CRISPRi screening to study the impact of perturbing T2D-associated genes at scale on beta-cell function. These multiple approaches will provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic risk associated with T2D.

Bio:
Dr. Tamadher Alghunaim received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where she conducted her doctoral research in the Diabetes Complications Lab of Dr. Andrew Advani. After obtaining her Ph.D., she pursued her postdoctoral research in the Islet Biology Lab of Dr. Patrick MacDonald at the University of Alberta. Dr. Alghunaim is the recipient of the KAUST Ibn Rushd Fellowship Award. As an Ibn Rushd Research Fellow, she is conducting her research studies with Dr. Anna Gloyn at the Translational Genomics of Diabetes Lab at Stanford University. Her current research focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms for type 2 diabetes by studying diabetes-associated genetic variants in authentic human cellular models.