Peptide Puzzle: Yi-Chun Chen on Early Markers for Diabetes and Obesity

Yi-Chun Chen is taking a close-up look at some of the body’s hardest-working cells — the ones often processing an overabundance of modern-day food and nutrients.

“From an evolutionary point of view, our cells are not designed to deal with that,” said Dr. Chen, who joined the department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan last year as an assistant professor.

She said our bodies are pushed into churning out large amounts of insulin rapidly after snacks and meals, “which makes the beta cells work extra hard.”

Raised in Taiwan and inspired by her grandfather—a retired elementary school science teacher—Chen’s fascination with biology first led her to work as a medical laboratory technologist, then to the world of cellular research.

Using both rodent and human models, Chen is studying pancreatic beta cells: the way they process peptide hormones like insulin and how their behaviour and function is affected by an excess of nutrients.

With high-resolution imaging, she and her team are examining how both humans and mice synthesize, process, and clear peptide hormones.

“There are a lot of things we still don't know about peptide hormones, not just in the pancreas, but in the brain, in the gut,” she said. “Those are fascinating.”

Last year, Chen was the recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Early Career Transition Award. After moving from UBC to Saskatoon, Dr. Chen said feels considerable support already from her established and mid-career prairie colleagues.

“They can mentor us and guide us, and we also have a group of five or six young scientists,” she said. “I can envision myself working on many, many interesting projects with them.”

Her goal today is to identify biomarkers that could predict diabetes far earlier.

She hopes to develop biochemical assays that measure proinsulin levels to serve as an early warning system. This could enable interventions months or even years before a traditional diagnosis based on blood glucose levels.

“We want to be able to predict the development of, for example, type 1 or type 2 diabetes before they are diagnosed,” said Chen.

In the long term, Chen envisions both preventative strategies and regenerative therapies to fight diabetes. Stem cell-derived beta cells may be a future solution, she said.

“We are making really good progress in Canada, actually. We have clinical trials. We’re putting the stem cell–derived beta cells into patients with type 1 diabetes.”

She hopes this will one day reduce the need for constant insulin injections, even helping curb  obesity.

“Don’t give up,” Chen said. “We are passionate and we want to work on many, many things.”

“If you like it, keep going.”