It seemed like an unlikely scenario: eight of UCSF’s top thought leaders describing their work for a public health sciences campus and hospital as hundreds of startup founders, sales executives and information technology professionals listened – and Tweeted – intently.

A somewhat mysterious soft tissue found in the fetus during early development in the womb plays a pivotal role in the formation of mature beta cells the sole source of the body’s insulin. This discovery, made by scientists at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Texas A&M University, may lead to new ways of addressing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.