[DBS seminar] Andraž Stožer & Marko Gosak, "From Ca²⁺ Waves to Insulin Pulses: Experimental and Theoretical Perspectives on β-Cell Network Dynamics"

Thursday 14 May 2026, 14:15 → 15:15 Europe/Ljubljana

Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)

Pancreatic β-cells within the islets of Langerhans coordinate their activity to generate pulsatile insulin secretion, a process essential for glucose homeostasis and disrupted during the development of diabetes. This seminar will combine experimental physiology and mathematical modelling to examine how multicellular β-cell networks encode, propagate, and translate Ca²⁺ signals into insulin release. In the experimental part, we will present insights from high-frequency confocal Ca²⁺ imaging, showing how β-cells respond heterogeneously to stimulation, how fast Ca²⁺ oscillations and intercellular waves emerge within islets, and how specific cellular subpopulations may contribute to signal initiation and propagation. We will also discuss conserved and altered features of these dynamics in human islets and during diabetes progression. Building on these findings, the modelling part will address why mathematical abstraction is needed to disentangle the mechanisms underlying such complex multiscale behaviour. We will present a phenomenological multicellular model that links structural gap-junction coupling, timescale-specific functional connectivity, and secretion. The model reproduces experimentally observed slow metabolic oscillations, fast bursts, and ultrafast spikes, and shows how interactions between these temporal domains shape pulsatile insulin output. By integrating high-resolution Ca²⁺ imaging with phenomenological modelling, the seminar highlights how interdisciplinary approaches can reveal the principles governing β-cell network function and its disruption in diabetes.