Peng Yi, PhD

Peng Yi, PhD, is an assistant investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The Yi Laboratory studies beta-cell regeneration, function, and protection against autoimmune destruction in type 1 diabetes. He trained in Eric Olson's lab for his PhD at UT Southwestern, then joined Doug Melton's Harvard group as a postdoctoral fellow before becoming a Joslin assistant investigator in 2013. That year he and Melton reported in Cell the discovery of betatrophin, later identified as ANGPTL8, a factor that drove mouse pancreatic beta cells to replicate far faster than normal. His laboratory uses an S961 insulin-receptor antagonist mouse model and functional genomic screens to find secreted factors and gene networks that trigger beta-cell replication. He co-directs Joslin's genome editing, applying CRISPR screens to uncover pathways that could regenerate insulin-producing cells.

Affiliation

Assistant Investigator, Joslin Diabetes Center

Location

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.