Anandwardhan A. Hardikar, PhD, received MSc in Zoology (Genetics) and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Pune, India. After successful completion of his PhD work, carried out mainly at the National Center for Cell Science and partly at the WHO center, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, he continued training in the field of pancreas biology and diabetes at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, where he worked with Doris Stoffers. He then went on to Sydney, Australia to work with Prof. Bernie Tuch at the University of New South Wales where he pursued his research interests in transplantation of insulin-producing surrogate B-cells. After his research tenure in the laboratory of Marvin Gershengorn, Scientific Director, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD, he went on to join the National Center for Cell Science, Pune, India. He presently leads the Diabetes and Islet-biology Group at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, The University of Sydney. Research in his laboratory is focused on understanding islet biology and development of insulin-producing cells. We work with cadaveric human pancreatic islets as well as biliary duct and gallbladder-derived cells to gather information that would help us understand development of insulin-producing cells. Our previous studies using next generation sequencing of developing human pancreas using the SOLiD platform have provided insight to understanding the role of ncRNAs (specifically microRNAs) in development and differentiation of insulin-producing cells. Present research projects involve applying this information to differentiation of human pancreatic progenitor cells. In addition to these studies, other projects in the lab are focused on understanding the epigenetic modifications in insulin-producing cells in a unique model of multigeneration undernutrition. These studies involve understanding the influence of diet, micronutrients, intrautetine programming and gut microbiota in development of central adiposity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.