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HIRN Data Scholar Award Recipients

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Ishahak and Dr. Liu Wang on their selection as HIRN Data Scholars Leveraging Multi-Modal Human Islet Research Network Knowledge (LINK) Award Recipients. This recognition highlights their exceptional contributions to advancing multi-modal human islet research and reflects the innovative spirit at the heart of the HIRN LINK initiative.

Associate Membership

The Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) is now accepting applications for its Associate Membership Program, designed to welcome investigators with active, peer-reviewed funding who are conducting research aligned with HIRN’s mission to understand and restore islet function in type 1 diabetes. This program offers opportunities to collaborate with HIRN consortia, present research at annual meetings, and engage in interdisciplinary discussions that advance the field of islet biology and diabetes research.

Application Deadline: October 15, 2025

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Funding Opportunity: Innate Immunity in Type 1 Diabetes

The HIRN Pancreas Knowledgebase Program (PanKbase) recently announced new pilot funding opportunity aimed at advancing data-driven pancreas and type 1 diabetes research. With advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly in Generative AI (GenAI), this pilot program will focus on two applications.

Application Deadline: September 2, 2025

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HIRN Data Scholars Awards

A new funding initiative to support the use of existing HIRN datasets and resources to explore unique and innovative hypotheses designed to accelerate breakthroughs and advances in type 1 diabetes (T1D) research.

Application Deadline: November 1, 2025

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HIRN Gateway Funding Awards

New Investigator Gateway Awards for Collaborative T1D Research

The New Investigator Gateway Award in T1D Research is designed to support a robust pipeline of innovative projects and talented new investigators in T1D research. In addition to providing support for preliminary research, the Gateway program provides an opportunity for new investigators to pursue their studies within the intellectual environment of a select number of large, ongoing collaborative research programs.

Application Deadline: March 6, 2026

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HIRN 2025 Annual Meeting

The HIRN 10th Anniversary Meeting (“Changing the Course in Type 1 Diabetes”) was hosted at the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD on January 13^th – 14, 2025.

Presentation reflected on the state of the diabetes research field, and the future direction of T1D research. More information available on the meeting website.

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The Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) was established in 2014 to help organize and support collaborative research related to the loss of functional beta cell mass in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The project consists of five independent research initiatives.

Research Resources

Latest News

HIRN: Data Scholars LINK Initiative

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Ishahak and Dr. Liu Wang on their selection as HIRN Data Scholars Leveraging Multi-Modal Human Islet Research Network Knowledge (LINK) Award Recipients. This recognition highlights their…

New Awards from RFA-DK-23-007: HIRN Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS)

Six new awards were announced for the newly created HIRN Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS) (RFA-DK-23-007): Decoding the Cell-specific Impact of Epigenomic and Alternative Splicing Regulation during…

HIRN Associate Membership

Independent Research Initiatives

Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival

CBDS is using human pancreatic tissues to discover mechanisms of cellular stress or dysfunction that may contribute to the development of autoimmunity in at-risk individuals, to identify specific biomarkers of the asymptomatic phase of T1D, and to develop innovative strategies to stop beta cell destruction early in the disease process.

Consortium on Human Islet Biomimetics

CHIB is combining advances in beta cell biology and stem cell biology with tissue engineering technologies to develop microdevices that support functional human islets.

Consortium on Modeling Autoimmune Interactions

The CMAI is developing innovative approaches to model basic aspects of human T1D immunobiology using novel in vivo and in vitro platforms.

Consortium on Targeting and Regeneration

CTAR is investigating methods to increase or maintain functional beta cell mass in T1D through targeted manipulation of islet plasticity or engineered protection of beta cells from immune-mediated destruction.

Human Pancreas Analysis Consortium

The Human Pancreas Analysis Consortium (HPAC) is investigating the physical and functional organization of the human islet tissue environment, the cell-cell relationships within the pancreatic tissue ecosystem, and the contributions of non-endocrine components (acinar, ductal, vascular, perivascular, neuronal, lymphatic, immune) to islet cell function and dysfunction.

Pancreas Knowledgebase Program

PanKbase is a centralized resource of the human pancreas for diabetes research that will provide access to deeply curated high-quality datasets, knowledge in computable forms, and advanced data science tools and workflows; and enable open and reproducible multidisciplinary collaboration toward accelerating biomarker and therapeutic target development.

HIRN-OPP

Opportunity Pool Projects

The Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) was established In 2014 to help organize and support collaborative research related to the loss of functional beta cell mass in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The project consists of five independent research initiatives.

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