Ulf Ahlgren

Biography

Professor Umeå Center for Molecular Medicine (UCMM)

Research Interest

Our research aims at utilizing various biomedical imaging techniques, in combination with classical molecular genetic methods, to better understand the mechanisms underlying the formation and development of diabetes in the pancreas. For this purpose we mainly use sk. optical projection tomography (Sharpe et al., Science 2002), a technique that we have shown can be used to image for example. insulin cellular (or other cell types) distribution and volume in intact pancreas from animal models for diabetes (Alanentalo et al., Nature Methods 2007). This can be done with a very high resolution and allows us to study for example. different aspects of the pancreas anatomy and the dynamics of diabetes-related illnesses (See, for example, Alanentalo et al., Diabetes 2010 and Hörnblad et al., Islets 2011). Our hope is that our research should provide a deeper insight into the causes of this epidemic population disease. Such information is crucial for identifying new pathways for treating the disease, but also for better evaluation of e.g. antidiabetic therapies and insulin cell transplants.