By Erika Brown – August 2, 2024
Marlie Maestas, a fifth-year graduate student in the Millman Lab, recently published her first first-authorship in Nature Communications. The study, titled Identification of unique cell type responses in pancreatic islets to stress, detailed the responses of different pancreatic islet cell types to endoplasmic reticulum and inflammatory stress. Maestas and her colleagues used single-cell RNA sequencing to detect stress’s impact on gene expression in each cell type and demonstrated that each type responds differently. The study indexed these responses and identified beta-cell-specific responses. Additionally, Maestas, Millman Lab and Urano Lab used their findings to identify the candidate gene CIB1 as a potential regulator of beta cell function.
“This study was designed to utilize multiplexed sequencing to understand the effects of different types of cell stress and reduce the variability due to multiple sequencing runs,” Maestas said. “Previous studies have investigated the compounds we have tested here; however, we noticed that these studies did not investigate cell-type-specific responses, leading us to design this study.”
The findings provide a detailed map of how pancreatic cells react to stress, offering insights that could lead to new therapeutic strategies. By targeting specific stress pathways, it may be possible to protect β-cells from damage and improve the overall health of pancreatic islets in diabetic patients.
Maestas received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from New Mexico State University and says she picked Washington University for graduate school because of the community. “When I came for my interview, I really liked all of the people and I felt like I would really be a part of a community,” she said. In 2021, Maestas joined the Millman Lab as a doctoral student in developmental, regenerative, stem cell biology. Although she initially joined the lab because of the people and the environment, she really enjoys the translational aspects of the lab and how much of an impact the studies have on diabetes research. Having family and friends who have diabetes has made her even more interested in the research.
After graduate school, Maestas plans to work in the biotechnology industry, designing new products or medicine to continue helping patients. She talked about shadowing a physician assistant during her undergraduate studies. “Every day she gave patients new medicines to try to see if they would help. While shadowing, I realized I wanted to be the person involved in understanding and creating new medicines for people.”
When she’s not working in the lab, Maestas likes to travel, hang out with her friends, and get lost in a good book. Her favorite destination so far is the Philippines, where she loved the people, food, and landscapes.
Read more about Maestas’s study in Nature Communications here.