Second ERC Grant for Francesca Spagnoli

The year 2015 has started very nicely with yet another ERC Grant for the MDC. Francesca Spagnoli, who had formerly received a grant of 1 million Euros, has received additional funding from the European Research Council. This “Proof-of-Concept Grant” is endowed with 150,000 Euros. It is designed for researchers who already hold an ERC grant in order to transform their research results into practical applications. Francesca’s Starting Grant allowed her to do research on reprogramming liver cells into pancreas cells. Together with her group, she has identified a factor that converts murine liver cells into pancreas cells. Now, Francesca wants to investigate whether human liver cells can also be reprogrammed into insulin-producing cells. Read more about it in the MDC’s press release.

The picture shows mouse endocrine islet cells (coloured green). Click to enlarge. Picture by F. Spagnoli/MDC