Emily Walker, PhD

Education and Training

• Medical College of Wisconsin, PhD, 2015
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University, 2019
• Research Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, 2025

Mentoring

Accepting new M.S. students in 2026-2027

Accepting new Ph.D. students in 2026-2027

Research Interests

My lab is interested in (1) mechanistically determining how metabolic disease results from loss of cell maturity and (2) restoring or producing mature β cells to reverse type 2 diabetes (T2D) or improve stem cell differentiation for cell replacement therapies, respectively. Specifically, we wish to understand how β cell development and mature function are regulated by transcription factor activity, including the MAFA and MAFB proteins.

Research Focus

1. Elucidate the contribution of MAFA and MAFB in regulating mitochondrial function in human β cells.
2. Delineate the impact of mitochondrial dysfunction on the transcriptional regulators of human β cell maturity.

Recent Publications

Selected Publications

For a complete list of publications please go to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/emily.walker.1/bibliography/public/. 

Lietzke A.C., Walker E.M., Bealer E., Crumley K., King J., Stendahl A.M., Zhu J., Pearson G.L., Levi-D’Ancona E., Henry-Kanarek B.A., Davidson R.K., Li J., Reck E.C., Wu Y., Arnipalli M., Pham J.P., Mundada L., Sidarala V., Herron T.J., Coronel M.M., Pennathur S., Madsen J.G.S., Shea L.D., Soleimanpour S.A. Limitations in PPARα-dependent mitochondrial programming restrain the differentiation of human stem cell-derived β cells. Nature Communications. Dec 10;16(1):11037.

Levi-D’Ancona E., Stendahl A.M., Henry-Kanarek B.A., Davidson R.K., Walker E.M., Soleimanpour S.A. Mitophagy in the adaptation to pancreatic β cell stress in diabetes. Trends in Endocrinology. Oct 17:S1043-2760(25)00201-2.

Levi-D’Ancona E., Walker E.M., Zhu J., Deng Y., Sidarala V., Stendahl A.M., Reck E.C., Henry-Kanarek B.A., Lietzke A.C., Pasmooij M.B., Hubers D.L., Basrur V., Ghosh S., Stiles L., Nesvizhskii A.I., Shirihai O.S., Soleimanpour S.A. TRAF6 integrates innate immune signals to regulate glucose homeostasis via Parkin-dependent and -independent mitophagy. Science Advances. Oct 10;11(41):eadw4153.

Walker E.M.*, Pearson G.L.*, Lawlor N., Stendahl A.M., Lietzke A., Sidarala V., Zhu J., Stromer T., Reck E.C., Stendahl A.M., Li J., Levi-D’Ancona E., Pasmooij M.B., Hubers D.L., Renberg A., Mohamed K., Parekh V.S., Zhang I.X., Thompson B., Zhang D., Ware S.A., Haataja L., Qi N., Parker S.C.J., Arvan P., Yin L., Kaufman B.A., Satin L.S., Sussel L., Stitzel M.L., Soleimanpour S.A. Retrograde mitochondrial signaling governs the identity and maturity of metabolic tissues. *Contributed equally. Science. 2025 Feb 6:eadf2034.

Cha J., Tong X., Walker E.M., Dahan T., Cochrane V.A., Ashe S., Russell R., Osipovich A.B., Mawla A.M., Guo M., Liu J.H., Loyd Z.A., Huising M.O., Magnuson M.A., Hebrok M., Dor Y., Stein R. Species-specific roles for the MAFA and MAFB transcription factors in regulating islet β cell identity. JCI Insight. 8(16).

Sidarala V., Zhu J., Levi-D'Ancona E., Pearson G.L., Reck E.C., Walker E.M., Kaufman B.A., Soleimanpour S.A. Mitofusin 1 and 2 regulation of mitochondrial DNA content is a critical determinant of glucose homeostasis. Nature communications.13(1)01/2022.

Dai X.Q., Camunas-Soler J., Briant L.J.B., dos Santos T., Spigelman A.F., Walker E.M., Arrojo e Drigo R., Bautista A., Jones R.C., Avrahami D., Lyon J., Nie A., Zhang Y., Johnson J., Manning Fox J.E., Michelakis E.D., Light P.E., Kaestner K.H., Kim S.K., Rorsman P., Stein R.W., Quake S.R., and MacDonald P.E. Heterogenous impairment of alpha cell function in type 2 diabetes is linked to cell maturation state. Cell Metabolism. 34(2), 256-268.e5.

Walker E.M., Cha J., Tong X., Guo M., Liu JH., Yu S., Iacovazzo D., Mauvais-Jarvis F., Flanagan S., Korbonits M., Stafford J., Jacobson D.A., and Stein R. Sex-biased islet β cell dysfunction is caused by the MODY MAFA S64F variant by inducing premature aging and senescence in males. Cell Reports. 37, 109813.

Hu R.*, Walker E.M.*, Huang C.*, Xu Y.*, Weng C., Erickson G.E., Golovin A., Yang X., Brissova M., Kaverina I., Appakalai B.N., Wright C.V.E., Li Y., Stein R., and Gu G. Myt transcription factors prevent stress-response gene overactivation to enable postnatal pancreatic β-cell proliferation, function, and survival. Developmental Cell. 53, 390–405. *Contributed equally.

Cyphert H.A.*, Walker E.M.*, Hang Y., Dhawan S., Haliyur R., Bonatakis L., Avrahami D., Brissova M., Kaestner K.H., Powers A.C., Stein R., Examining how the MAFB transcription factor affects islet β cell function postnatally. Diabetes. 68(2): 337-348 *Contributed equally.