Our research seeks to understand how the pancreas responds to injury and to develop clinical approaches to restoring endocrine pancreatic function as a cell therapy for type I diabetes. Our work has identified a cell type that is present in the adult human pancreas and is capable of generating cells that can produce the endocrine hormones insulin and glucagon. This “endocrine progenitor” cell is normally present at low levels in normal pancreas tissue. We focus on the mechanisms that regulate these cells in the body. This research may result in methods to enhance endocrine regeneration without removing tissue from the body, through targeted pharmacological approaches that enhance the number of endocrine progenitor cells. Some of the anticipated outcomes of the research are methods to enhance endocrine pancreas regeneration as a treatment for type I diabetes and methods for the early detection of pancreas injury and disease.