TXNIP Switches Tracks toward a Terminal UPR

During the progression of diabetes, crosstalk between ER stress and inflammation controls islet cell fate. In this issue, Lerner et al. (2012) and Oslowski et al. (2012) discover that thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is a regulatory switch connecting the terminal unfolded protein response (UPR) and NLRP3 inflammasome to mediate beta cell death.