Led by Keith Blackwell, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Research Director and co-head of the Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, the scientists studied a protein known as IRE-1 in the outer membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), an "organelle" in the cell that synthesizes proteins such as insulin. IRE-1 stands guard over the ER, triggering alerts when these synthesized proteins are misfolded and thus allowing cells to take corrective measurements.