CIMR-Huixia Ren

Research Group

Huixia Ren

renhuixia(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

Lab Website

Junior Investigator

renhuixia(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

B.S. in Mathematics, South China University of Technology, China

Ph.D. in Integrated Life Science, Peking University, China

Work Experience

2024.7

Junior Investigator, Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Beijing, China

2020.6-2024.6

Postdoctoral Fellow, Peking University, China

Research Direction

The Ren laboratory at CIMR works how cell-to-cell interactions within the pancreatic islet balance Ca²⁺ activity and hormone secretion, as well as maintain blood glucose homeostasis. Through the integration of experimental, computational and theoretical methods, we aim to gain new insights for disease treatment.

Major Research Projects

1. Novel glucagon and somatostatin sensor to detect the endogenous hormone secretiondynamics

2. Mechanisms of glucose sensitivity regulation in diabetic pancreatic islets

3. Invivo pancreatic islet Ca²⁺and hormone release imaging

Major Contributions

1. Discovered that the alpha and beta cells in pancreatic islets are globally phase-locked. Build a mathematical model to highlight the importance of cell-cell interactions to generate stable but tunable islet oscillation patterns. This challenges the traditional view that oscillation patterns originate mainly from the heterogeneity of beta cells. (Nature Communications, 2022).

2. Using a novel extracellular Zn²⁺probe to observe insulin vesicle secretion, it was found that the secretion capacity of islet β cells exhibits exponential distribution heterogeneity. (Nature Metabolism, 2024).

Representative Publications *：Co-first author; #：Co-corresponding author

Ren HX*, Li YJ*, Han CS*, Yu Y, Shi BW, Peng XH, Zhang TM, Wu SF, Yang XJ, Kim S, Chen LY^# and Tang C^#. Pancreatic α and β cells are globally phase-locked. Nature Communications, 2022, 13, no. 1 : 1-16. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31373-6

Ren HX, Zhao MD, Liu B, Yao RX, Liu Q, Ren ZP, Wu ZR, Gao ZM, Yang XJ, Tang C^#. Cellbow: a robust customizable cell segmentation program. Quantitative Biology, 2020, 8(3): 245–255. DOI: 10.1007/s40484-020-0213-6

Peng XH*, Ren HX*, Yang L*, Tong SY, Zhou RJ, Long HC, Wu YX, Wang LF, Wu Y, Zhang YD, Shen JY, Zhang JW, Qiu GH, Wang JY, Han CS, Zhang YL, Zhou MX, Zhao YW, Xu T, Tang C, Chen ZX, Liu HS^#, Chen LY^#. Releasable b-cells with tight Ca²⁺-exocytosis coupling in pancreatic islets dictate biphasic glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Nature Metabolism, 2024, 1-16. DOI:10.1038/s42255-023-00962-0

Zhang JW*, Peng XH*, Wu YX*, Ren HX*, Sun JF, Tong SY, Liu TY, Zhao Y, Wang SS, Tang C, Chen LY, and Chen ZX^#. Red‐and Far‐Red‐Emitting Zinc Probes with Minimal Phototoxicity for Multiplexed Recording of Orchestrated Insulin Secretion. Angewandte Chemie, 2021, 133, no. 49: 26050-26059. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202109510

Lei Y*, Zhao ZY*, Ren HX*, Wang WC*, Zhou WZ, Zheng SC, Han RL, Zhang J, Li HR, Wan ZH, Tang C, Sun SY, Wang WQ, Ning G#. A multi-classifier system to identify and subtype congenital adrenal hyperplasia based on circulating steroid hormones. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2022, Jul 14;107(8): e3304-e3312. DOI:10.1210/clinem/dgac271