Yassi Aghazadeh

Congratulations to all the awardees of IRCM foundation scholarship, including our own Théa Milland & Noah Verreault. I appreciate the donors who made this possible. These awards are competitive & externally reviewed - I highly appreciate the reviewers for their time, effort and support of students!

🤯

Oh my god

Junior PI position in cancer research open at the IRCM. Apply below 👇🏽 #PIposition #assistantprofessor #cancer #openposition #ircm

Thanks Rob! Super fun class as always! Good to see some familiar faces too

a woman wearing sunglasses and a blue shirt is making a funny face and saying `` no autographs please '' . ALT: a woman wearing sunglasses and a blue shirt is making a funny face and saying `` no autographs please '' .

Today in the 🇨🇦 National Grad course in #Islet Biology and #Diabetes we welcome superstars Cristina Nostro and @yassiag.bsky.social to discuss the latest on using #stemcell derived islet cells as a strategy to treat (cure?) #T1D!

EXKAPAZ scape room experience, Montreal

Jardin des Panos, Montréal

Wrapping up a great year for the lab. We in 2025 we expanded and reached some important milestones as a growing team. Grateful for the collective effort and momentum. Wishing friends and colleagues a restful holiday season and a happy start to the new year.

Limitations in PPARα-dependent mitochondrial programming restrain the differentiation of human stem cell-derived β cells - Nature Communications Here they show that PPARα-dependent mitochondrial programming promotes the differentiation of pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells. Targeting mitochondria has the potential to improve β cell replacem...

Lietzke et al. demonstrate that pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells exhibit reduced oxidative and mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism compared to primary human islets, which is related to limitations in key mitochondrial transcriptional networks. 🧪
#PancSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

World Diabetes Day

(3/3) SCN has supported this work every step of the way. From 2016–2028, SCN has committed over $11.5 million in funding for innovative diabetes research and clinical trials.

✨ Meet the SCN-funded researchers are helping pave the way.

World Diabetes Day

(3/3) Le RCS a soutenu chaque étape de ces travaux, s’engageant à fournir plus de 11,5 M$ de 2016 à 2028 pour des recherches innovantes et des essais cliniques sur le diabète.

✨ Faites connaissance avec les chercheurs soutenus par le RCS qui contribuent à tracer le chemin dans ce domaine.

Proud PI moment at @RéseauThéCell:
🏅 Ying Deng – Best Poster PhD
🏅 Thea Milland – Best Poster MSc
🏅 Giselle de Leon – Best Poster BSc
Representing @ircm.bsky.social , Ying and Thea @umontreal.ca , Giselle @mcgill.ca

Grateful to organizers Kim Santerre and Dr Corinne Hoesli for this meeting!

It was great honor to attend and present at @navbo.bsky.social Vascular 2025 meeting. Huge thanks to the organizers for putting this tremendous meeting together. And what a special session focusing on vascularization of organoids and disease on a chip models.

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor

📢 McGill University is hiring!

The Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, with the Meakins-Christie Labs at the RI-MUHC, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Pluripotent Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine.

Learn more and apply. ➡️ stemcellnetwork.ca/wp-content/u...

Interesting and impactful new work by Estall lab: “Here, we identify a novel biological pathway downstream of glucagon that promotes the hepatic lipid accumulation associated with fasting” 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
#Glucagon #MASLD #Fasting

🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Jean-François Côté on his appointment to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences! This prestigious distinction recognizes his scientific leadership, the excellence of his health research—particularly on cell migration and metastasis—as well as his commitment to collaboration and innovation in health. A well-deserved recognition! 👏

Congratulations to Dr. Côté on his appointment to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences! This prestigious distinction recognizes his scientific leadership, the excellence of his health research as well as his commitment to collaboration and innovation in health.
🔗 bit.ly/3HGWhX3

I’m one of the mentors for this year long internship :) Apply if you have interest in writing and Science Communication. There’s opportunity to get some of your pieces in DB @devbiol.bsky.social!

Apply today!!

Very proud to share the first review from the lab with contributions of all lab members. Writing this gave our new lab opportunity to read and discuss many papers and grow as a team. www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm...

Very excited about our project aiming at advancing cell therapies for type 1 diabetes. and very thankful for receiving funding from @stemcellnetwork.ca

DEC1 Regulates Human β Cell Functional Maturation and Circadian Rhythm Stem cell-derived islet (SC-islet) organoids offer hope for cell replacement therapy in diabetes, but their immature function remains a challenge. Mature islet function requires the β-cell circadian c...

Preza et al. show that a circadian transcription factor specific to maturing stem cell-derived-β cells, DEC1, regulates insulin responsiveness to glucose. 🧪
#PancSky #StemCells

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Poster titled Stem cell-based models of early human development

Stem cell-based models of early human development

Read this Development at a Glance Article by Lizhong Liu @liliulab.bsky.social and Jun Wu @jun-wu-lab.bsky.social:
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Type 1 diabetes risk factors, risk prediction and presymptomatic detection: Evidence and guidance for screening Type 1 diabetes is recognized as a chronic disease with a presymptomatic phase that does not require insulin therapy and a clinical phase where insulin treatment becomes necessary. The presymptomati...

Bonifacio and Ziegler summarize current evidence and guidance while emphasizing the need for continued research alongside broader screening application in #type1diabetes. 🧪
#PancSky

dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Genetic protection from type 1 diabetes resulting from accelerated insulin mRNA decay Insulin gene variation predisposes individuals to type 1 diabetes (T1D). We report a new mechanism of genetic protection from T1D in which insulin mRNA with a protective SNP is broken down by IRE1α, t...

A protective INS SNP causes accelerated IRE1α-dependent decay of insulin mRNA, alleviates ER stress and reduces beta-cell immunogenicity

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Enterovirus VP1 protein and HLA class I hyperexpression in pancreatic islet cells of organ donors with type 1 diabetes - Diabetologia Aims/hypothesis Earlier studies of pancreases from donors with type 1 diabetes demonstrated enteroviral capsid protein VP1 in beta cells. In the context of a multidisciplinary approach undertaken by t...

Enterovirus infections may occur throughout the natural history of type 1 #diabetes and may be associated to islet cell HLA-I hyperexpression. @teresarc.bsky.social @sarahibex.bsky.social #T1D #DiabetesResearch link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓

Deleterious knock-outs in the HLA class I antigen processing and presentation machinery induce distinct changes in the immunopeptidome The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) processing and presentation machinery (APPM) is altered in various diseases and in response to drug treatments. Defects in the machinery may change presentation level...

I've been really hoping someone would do a study like this!

www.mcponline.org/article/S153...

Nice discussion on the usefulness of genetic and autoantibody screening in children for T1D

Happy Persian new year, Norouz, and the beginning of spring! 🌸🪻☀️

Me as well!

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Today, rising stars @drprentice.bsky.social and @yassiag.bsky.social swing through the 🇨🇦 National #Islet and #Diabetes Course to discuss the latest on vascularizing stem cell-derived islet cells, adipose-islet communication, beta cell proliferation, and more @cirtn.bsky.social

Honored to have recieved this together with Dr Hoesli and @martinsauvageau.bsky.social