Welcome to the Walker Lab website! I'm Emily Walker, and I lead a research group within the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Wayne State University. My lab is dedicated to understanding how cell maturity and function are regulated by transcription factor activity in metabolic tissues, particularly in pancreatic beta cells.
Our primary goals are to (1) mechanistically determine how metabolic disease results from loss of cell maturity and (2) restore or produce mature β cells to reverse type 2 diabetes (T2D) or improve stem cell differentiation for cell replacement therapies, respectively.
I have a strong track record of publishing in leading scientific journals, including recent publications in Nature Communications, Science, and Nature Metabolism. Please explore our website to learn more about our current projects and publications.
Publications
Anne Lietzke, Emily M. Walker, Elizabeth J. Bealer, Kelly Crumley, Jessica L King, Ava M. Stendahl, Jie Zhu, Gemma L. Pearson, Elena Levi-D'Ancona, Belle A. Henry-Kanarek, Rebecca K. Davidson, Jin Li, Emma C. Reck, Yifei Wu, M. Arnipalli, John-Paul A Pham, Lakshmi Mundada, Vaibhav Sidarala, Todd J. Herron, Maria M. Coronel, Subramaniam Pennathur, J. G. Madsen, Lonnie D. Shea, S. Soleimanpour
Nature Communications, 2025
Mitophagy in the adaptation to pancreatic β cell stress in diabetes.
Elena Levi-D'Ancona, Ava M. Stendahl, Belle A. Henry-Kanarek, Rebecca K. Davidson, Emily M. Walker, S. Soleimanpour
Trends in endocrinology and metabolism, 2025
Elena Levi-D'Ancona, Emily M. Walker, Jie Zhu, Yamei Deng, Vaibhav Sidarala, Ava M. Stendahl, Emma C. Reck, Belle A. Henry-Kanarek, Anne Lietzke, Biaoxin Chai, Mabelle B. Pasmooij, Dre L Hubers, V. Basrur, Sankar Ghosh, Linsey Stiles, Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, O. Shirihai, S. Soleimanpour
Science Advances, 2025
Retrograde mitochondrial signaling governs the identity and maturity of metabolic tissues.
E. Walker, Gemma L. Pearson, Nathan Lawlor, Ava M. Stendahl, Anne Lietzke, Vaibhav Sidarala, Jie Zhu, Tracy Stromer, Emma C. Reck, Jin Li, Elena Levi-D'Ancona, Mabelle B. Pasmooij, Dre L Hubers, Aaron Renberg, Kawthar Mohamed, V. Parekh, Irina X. Zhang, B. Thompson, Deqiang Zhang, Sarah A. Ware, L. Haataja, Nathan R. Qi, Stephen C. J. Parker, P. Arvan, L. Yin, B. Kaufman, L. Satin, L. Sussel, M. Stitzel, S. Soleimanpour
Science, 2025
Jin Li, Yamei Deng, Marie Gasser, Jie Zhu, Emily M. Walker, Vaibhav Sidarala, Emma C. Reck, Dre L Hubers, Mabelle B. Pasmooij, Chun-Shik Shin, Khushdeep Bandesh, Eftyhmios Motakis, Siddhi Nargund, R. Kursawe, V. Basrur, Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, M. Stitzel, David C. Chan, G. A. Rutter, S. Soleimanpour
Nature Metabolism, 2025
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