Bio

Kristin Abraham is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. Her interests are the role of the immune response in metabolic dysfunction and type 2 Diabetes, and projects that develop and validate the utility of new animal models for basic and preclinical research in diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic diseases.

Bio

Ashutosh Agarwal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Pathology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He completed his postdoctoral research in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, and at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. The mission of his Physiomimetic Microsystems Laboratory at the University of Miami is to develop human relevant organ mimic platforms for discovery of therapies and drugs, for modeling of disease states, for conducting mechanistic studies, and for differentiation, maturation and evaluation of stem cells.

Projects

• Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem
• Real-time Detection of Insulin Surrogate Markers within Physiomimetic Islet Microsystems
• Engineering a Human Microphysiological System for the Characterization of Islet-Immune Interactions

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Ashu+Agarwal

Bio

Joana Almaça is a HIRN New Investigator and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Her current research focuses on the vasculature of the islet. In her work, Dr. Almaça is testing the hypothesis that microvascular dysfunction in the islet leads to a disturbance of hormone secretion, to glucose intolerance, and eventually to diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-almaca

Projects

• Changes in Human Islet Microvasculature during Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrative Analysis of Multiomic Signatures and Cellular Function in Human Pancreas Across Developmental Timeline at Single-cell Spatial Resolution

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Joana+Almaca

Bio

Juan Alvarez is a HIRN Emerging Leader Award Recipient and an Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on human stem cell-derived pancreatic islet organoids and mice as model systems to study islet development, physiology, and pathology, and to develop replacement therapies for insulin-dependent diabetes. We focus on the interplay between circadian rhythms, metabolism, and islet cell maturation.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-juan-r-alvarez

Projects

• Measuring Islet-wide Function with Soft Integrated Nanoelectronics

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=juan+alvarez

Bio

Mark Anderson is an Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on examining the genetic control of autoimmune diseases to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which immune tolerance is broken. Current studies in the lab are directed at further understanding the relative contribution of specialized Aire-expressing cells to immune tolerance in multiple autoimmune disease models.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_manderson?hilite=Mark+S.+Anderson

Projects

• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems
• Using Human Stem Cell-derived Thymic Epithelium to Remodel T1D Immune Tolerance

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Mark+S.+Anderson

Bio

Radhika Armandla is a Senior Research Specialist in the Powers & Brissova Research Group at Vanderbilt University. She is involved in projects dealing with human islet transplantation, in vitro analysis and imaging in order to study human islet survival, function, regeneration and proliferation.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-al-powers-md

Projects

• High-Resolution Analysis of Juvenile Human Pancreas Maturation
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas
• Single Cell Analysis of the Human Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes

Bio

Lucas Armitage first participated in the HIRN while as a graduate student in the Wallet & Brusko Labs at the University of Florida. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Russ Lab at the University of Colorado Denver.

Projects

• Genetic Regulation of Human Beta Cell Destruction

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Lucas+Armitage

Bio

Guillermo Arreaza-Rubin is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. His interests are in diabetes and endocrine disease bioengineering and glucose sensing.

Bio

Rafael Arrojo e Drigo is a Gateway Award Recipient and co-Investigator on a HPAC Grant. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms regulating post-mitotic cell homeostasis and longevity.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-rafael-arrojo-e-drigo?hilite=%27rafael%27

Projects

• Mapping the Association of Beta Cell Longevity and Senescence in T1D
• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Rafael+Arrojo+e+Drigo

Bio

Peter Arvan is the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, & Diabetes at the University of Michigan. His research focus is to examine molecular mechanisms involved in the folding, trafficking, and targeting of newly-synthesized endocrine secretory proteins

Projects

• A Stress-Induced Vicious Cycle in the Development of T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=+Peter+Arvan

Bio

Mark Atkinson is currently the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research and the Jeffrey Keene Family Professor at the University of Florida. He also is the Director of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Florida. Additionally, he is the Executive Director of the JDRF Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) program and the President of Insulin for Life USA, the world’s second largest charity dedicated to providing insulin to persons living with diabetes in the developing world. His research focuses on type 1 diabetes, pancreatic pathology, immune therapy, autoimmunity, clinical trials, translational research, emerging technologies, psychosocial behaviors, and metabolism.

Projects

• Defining Islet Heterogeneity Using Single Islet Transcriptomics
• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Antibodies for Beta-Cell Subtype Identification by Immunohistochemistry
• Single-Cell Analyses of Human Islets in T1D Using Highly Multiplexed Imaging

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Mark+Atkinson

Bio

Rhonda Bacher is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on the development of statistical methods and computational tools for analyzing high-throughput genomic and next-generation sequencing data. My current focus is on single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics and time-course transcriptomics.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_rbacher?hilite=rhonda

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/hirecstaff_nberger

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/hirec-staff-sandy-beshir

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

Bio

Michael Betts is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies human T lymphocyte function in order to understand the role of these cells in controlling or eliminating viral pathogens and providing protection from infection. His primary research interest is in determining how and if the human CD8+ T cell response to HIV controls viral replication.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Michael+Betts

Bio

Anil Bhushan is a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. His research goal is to understand the role of tissue secretory senescent cells in aging, autoimmunity and metabolic diseases. One of his recent discoveries shows that pancreatic beta cells acquire a secretome during T1D in mice and human and exhibit many non-cell autonomous properties.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Anil+Bhushan

Bio

Olivier Blondel is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. His interests lie in research that focuses on endocrine signaling, stem cell biology, organ development, regenerative medicine and biomarker discovery as it relates to diabetes (type 1 and type 2) and metabolic diseases, particularly in combination with experimental approaches such as large-scale genomics, synthetic biology, bioengineering, epigenetics, nuclear organization of mammalian genomes, chromatin biology, genome editing, gene therapy

Bio

Michael Brehm is an Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine and Co-Director of the Humanized Mouse Core Facility at UMass Chan Medical School. He works with these unique animal models of human immune responses to investigate approaches to downregulate as well as activate the human immune system for treatments of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and cancer. Dr. Brehm studies human beta cells from individuals with type 1 diabetes in a real-life setting as they interact with intact T1D immune systems.

Projects

• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Michael+Brehm

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Marcela Brissova is an Research Professor of Medicine and Director of the Islet Procurement & Analysis Core at Vanderbilt University. She is also the Director of the Human Islet Phenotyping Program (HIPP) of IIDP. Her research focuses on the biology of pancreatic islets and pancreas and islet development, especially the development of pancreatic islet vasculature and innervation and their role in regulation of pancreatic islet function.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_brissova?hilite=Marcela+Brissova

Projects

• Integrative Analysis of Multiomic Signatures and Cellular Function in Human Pancreas Across Developmental Timeline at Single-cell Spatial Resolution
• In situ Analysis of Functional Endocrine, Vascular, and Immune Cell Interactions During Early Postnatal Development of the Human Pancreas
• High-Resolution Analysis of Juvenile Human Pancreas Maturation
• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/Contributor/Index/marcela_brissova@hirnetwork.org

Bio

Todd Brusko is a Professor at Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine and the scientific director at University of Florida Diabetes Institute (UFDI). The research aims of Dr. Brusko’s academic lab are centrally themed around understanding the mechanisms by which the immune system maintains a state of control, often referred to as immunological tolerance and understanding how genetic risk variants and age influence this process, as well as identifying pathway defects in individuals who develop autoimmune diseases. These studies have focused primarily on genes impacting key checkpoints in T cell activation, including T cell receptor (TCR) signaling, co-stimulation, and the IL-2 signaling pathway. His laboratory is involved a number of ongoing team science initiatives including an NIH-NIAID P01 grant, NIH Director’s Initiative – Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), Brehm Coalition, and the JDRF biomarker working group and autoimmunity working group.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_tbrusko?hilite=todd+brusko

Projects

• Genetic Regulation of Human Beta Cell Destruction
• Islet-reactive TCR clones in humanized mice generated with type 1 diabetes patient vs. healthy control hematopoietic stem cells
• Characterization of in silico Reconstruction of TCRs for Modeling Autoreactive T cells in T1D
• Engineering a Human Microphysiological System for the Characterization of Islet-Immune Interactions

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=todd+brusko

Bio

Peter Buchwald is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Director of the Drug Discovery Program at the Diabetes Research Institute. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals focused on the physicochemical and metabolic aspects of drug design and drug action, as well as on computer-aided quantitative modeling. Dr. Buchwald is directing the DRI’s efforts aimed at developing safer and more effective drugs for islet replacement therapies.

Projects

• Aptamer Chimeras for the in vivo Modulation of Beta Cell Mass and Immunogenicity
• Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Peter+Buchwald

Bio

Alejandro Caicedo is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. iginally trained as a sensory neurobiologist, Dr. Caicedo started working in the field of pancreatic islet biology in 2005. His work focuses on fundamental aspects of the anatomy and physiology of the human islet. His primary goal is to provide detailed knowledge of islet biology that is relevant to understand the control of glucose homeostasis and its derangement in diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_caicedo

Projects

• Integrative Analysis of Multiomic Signatures and Cellular Function in Human Pancreas Across Developmental Timeline at Single-cell Spatial Resolution
• In situ Analysis of Functional Endocrine, Vascular, and Immune Cell Interactions During Early Postnatal Development of the Human Pancreas
• High-Resolution Characterization of Human Ductal Progenitor Cells and their Regeneration Potential
• Real-time Detection of Insulin Surrogate Markers within Physiomimetic Islet Microsystems

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Alejandro+Caicedo

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Shuibing Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery and Department of Biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research interest is to manipulate stem cell fate using chemical and biological approaches and to generate functional tissues and organs that can be used for translational research.

Projects

• Determining the Intrinsic and Environmental Signal Contributing to Early T1D Progression

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Shuibing+Chen

Bio

Karen Christman is a Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California in San Diego. Her lab focuses on developing novel biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Projects are highly interdisciplinary and include the development of materials for in vitro differentiation of stem cells to injectable biomaterials for tissue repair and regeneration. The lab has a strong translational focus with the main goal of developing novel minimally invasive therapies for cardiovascular disease

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_kchristman?hilite=Karen+Christman

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease
• Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Human Islet and Pancreas ECM
• A 3D Vascularized Islet Biomimetic to Model Type 1 Diabetes

Bio

Remi Creusot is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and an Investigator within the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. His research interests revolve around the pathogenesis and prevention of Type 1 Diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_rcreusot?hilite=Remi+Creusot

Projects

• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems

Bio

Chunhua Dai is a Research Associate Professor in the Powers & Brissova Research Group at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on the molecular, cellular, and vascular changes in human islets when they are challenged with hyperglycemia and/or insulin resistance in vivo. She is investigating in vivo age-dependent human beta cell proliferation and how current therapeutic agents for type 2 diabetes preserve and/or enhance human beta cell function or survival in vivo.

Projects

• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Chunhua+Dai

Bio

XiaoQing Dai is a Research Associate Professor in the MacDonald Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the lead electrophysiologist and involved in many collaborative projects.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/research_staff_profile_xai?hilite=XiaoQing+Dai

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=XiaoQing+Dai

Bio

George Daley is Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research seeks to translate insights in stem cell biology into improved therapies for genetic and malignant diseases. His laboratory has pioneered human cell culture-based and murine models of human blood disease and cancer.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_gdaley?hilite=George+Daley

Projects

• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=George+Daley

Bio

Nichole Danzl is an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University Medical Center. Her research studies for optimization of the PI mouse model and implements these advances into the basic paired T1D versus Healthy Control comparative experiments. She also leads the in vivo functional testing of ES and iPS derivatives to make human islets and a human thymus from the hematopoietic stem cell donor.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-megan-sykes-md

Projects

• Mice with Autologous Human T1D-Derived Immune Systems and iPSC-Derived Beta Cells

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Nichole+Danzl

Bio

Sangeeta Dhawan is a HIRN New Investigator and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Translational Research & Cellular Therapeutics. Her research focuses on the understanding the biology of the insulin producing beta cells.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-dhawan

Projects

• Targeting DNA Hydroxymethylation to Promote Human Beta Cell Function

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Sangeeta+Dhawan

Bio

Nicolai Doliba is a Research Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the role of bioenergetics, ion transport and metabolic coupling factors in nutrient- and drug-stimulated insulin release at normal conditions and during diabetes mellitus.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)

Bio

Juan Dominguez-Bendala is a Research Professor of Surgery at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also the Director of Stem Cell & Pancreatic Regeneration and Research Professor of Surgery at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI). His research focuses on the use of stem cells to obtain pancreatic islets that could potentially be transplanted into patients with type 1 diabetes. He is also currently working on new methods for expansion/regeneration of pancreatic beta cells.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_bendala?hilite=Juan+Dominguez-Bendala

Projects

• High-Resolution Characterization of Human Ductal Progenitor Cells and their Regeneration Potential
• Using ex vivo, in vivo Models and Patient Mutations to Interrogate Pancreatic Exocrine-Endocrine Cross Talk

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Juan+Dominguez-Bendala

Bio

Yuval Dor is a Professor of Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has worked in the past mostly on diabetes and tissue regeneration in the pancreas, but in recent years much of our focus has shifted to a new technology that we are developing, for non-invasive monitoring of cell death in humans, based on circulating DNA.

Projects

• Drivers and Consequences of Beta Cell DNA Damage in Type 1 Diabetes
• Non-invasive Detection of Cell Death in Type 1 Diabetes: Insight into Novel Disease Mechanisms
• Non-invasive Diagnosis of Human Beta Cell Damage and Death
• The Proteome of Replicating Cells
• Survival and Potential of Insulin-deficient Beta Cells in Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=+Yuval+Dor

Bio

Thomas Eggerman is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. His interests are in cystic fibrosis research and translation centers, inborn errors of metabolism, clinical trials, and islet transplantation, and inborn errors of metabolism.

Bio

Decio L. Eizirik is a Professor at the ULB Center for Diabetes Research Medical Faculty, Universite Libre de Bruxells (ULB) in Brussels, Belgium. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating insulitis and beta cell apoptosis in type 1 diabetes and on the search for novel approaches to prevent the progressive loss of beta cell mass in diabetes.

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Decio+Eizirik%2C

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Abdelfattah El Ouaamari is a HIRN New Investigator and an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University. His research employs a multidisciplinary approach to identify local, systemic and neuronal signals regulating the number and the function of pancreatic islet insulin-producing β cells in mouse and human models of obesity and diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-elouaamari

Projects

• Neuromodulation for Type 1 Diabetes: Harnessing Sensory Innervation to Promote Regeneration and Function of Insulin-Producing Cells.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Abdel+El+Ouaamari

Bio

Carmella Evans-Molina is the Director of the Indiana University Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, J. O. Ritchey Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, and Director of the IDRC Islet and Physiology Core.. She directs the Diabetes Research Program in the Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research and is a staff physician at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center. Her research is focused on defining the molecular and inflammatory etiologies of β-cell dysfunction that contribute to diabetes pathophysiology. She has a clinical research interest focused on leveraging activation of β-cell stress pathways to inform the development of biomarkers that predict diabetes risk and define disease endotypes.

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D
• Workshop for Continued Harmonization of Beta Cell Death Assays

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Carmella+Evans-Molina

Bio

Robert Babak Faryabi is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research goal is to understand the epigenetic mechanisms of transcriptional addiction in cancer and exploit this information to advance cancer therapeutics.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)

Bio

Leonardo Ferreira is a HIRN Emerging Leader Award Recipient and an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research focuses on phenomenon of immune tolerance, his long term goal is to control how the immune system defines self and non-self. Such knowledge will allow the design and development of powerful new engineered immune cell therapies to fight autoimmune disease, cancer, and aging.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-leonardo-m-r-ferreira

Projects

• Dissecting Chimeric Antigen Receptor Function in Human Regulatory T Cells

Bio

Paul Gadue is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His laboratory studies cell fate decisions, focusing on endoderm and mesoderm specification using human ES cells and iPS cells. ES/iPS cells can differentiate into all cell types in the body and can be propagated in culture almost indefinitely, generating a virtually unlimited supply of cells. These unique characteristics lead to the exciting prospect of using these cells to study disease processes and developmental pathways in vitro and eventually to treat a wide variety of diseases using cell replacement therapies.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_pgadue?hilite=Gadue

Projects

• Functional Testing of Candidate HSC-derived Islet Cells
• Generation of Functional Endocrine Cell Reporter Pluripotent Cell Lines
• Microphysiological Systems for Modeling Autoimmunity in Type 1 Diabetes
• A Vascularized 3D Biomimetic for Islet Function and Physiology

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Paul+Gadue

Bio

Kyle Gaulton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on human genetics and single cell genomics to define cell type-specific gene regulatory programs that affect risk of complex disease, in particular type 1 diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_gaulton?hilite=Kyle+Gaulton

Projects

• Single Cell Analysis of the Human Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Kyle+Gaulton

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

George Davis is a Professor and the Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. His research uses stem cell, microfluidic and computational technologies to develop 3D mimics of human organs, known as "organs-on-a-chip." The lab specifically focuses on cancer (pancreatic, colorectal and breast), the cardiovascular system (perfused microcirculation, cariomyocytes) and the pancreas.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_sgeorge?hilite=Steven+George

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease
• A 3D Vascularized Islet Biomimetic to Model Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Steven+George

Bio

Anna Gloyn is a Professor of Pediatrics, Endocrinology and Genetics at Stanford University. Her research uses human genetics as a tool to understand cellular and molecular mechanisms for pancreatic beta cell failure in diabetes and related conditions. he aim of her research is to capitalize on an improved mechanistic understanding of pancreatic islet cell dysfunction to improve treatment options for patients via the identification of safe and effective therapeutic targets (drug development) and patient stratification (precision medicine).

Projects

• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)

Bio

Robin Goland is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Columbia University, and directs the patient care and clinical research programs at the Berrie Diabetes Center.

Projects

• Mice with Autologous Human T1D-Derived Immune Systems and iPSC-Derived Beta Cells
• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Robin+Goland

Bio

Carla Greenbaum is the Director, of the Center for Interventional Immunology and the Director of the Diabetes Research Program at Benaroya Research Institute. Her research interests are in clinical investigations and trials to prevent or intervene in the diabetes autoimmune disease process.

Projects

• Non-invasive Detection of Cell Death in Type 1 Diabetes: Insight into Novel Disease Mechanisms

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Carla+Greenbaum

Bio

Dale Greiner is the Chair in Biomedical Research and Professor of Molecular Medicine and Co-Director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Chan Medical School. His research focuses on the development and use of a unique mouse model, engrafted with functional human cells and tissues. His work has generated high interest in the biomedical research community for use as a preclinical model for the investigation of human diabetes, cancer, infectious disease, regenerative medicine and autoimmunity.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_dgreiner?hilite=Dale+Greiner

Projects

• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Dale+Greiner

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Markus Grompe is Professor and Director Family Pediatric Research Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. His research focuses on the use of in vivo selection to enhance gene and cell transplantation therapy for inherited diseases.

Projects

• In vivo Targeting of Diabetes-relevant Human Cell Types with rAAV Vectors
• Gene Therapy for Diabetes
• Antibodies for Beta-Cell Subtype Identification by Immunohistochemistry

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Markus+Grompe

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Manami Hara is a Research Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Chicago. Her research focus is on the developmental biology of pancreatic islets. The islet of Langerhans is a micro-organ composed of insulin-secreting beta-cells and other endocrine cells that work together to maintain glucose homeostasis.

Projects

• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Dale Greiner is a Professor of Molecular Medicine and Co-Director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Chan Medical School. He has led basic and clinical research exploring the pathophysiology underlying diabetes. Dr. Harlan conducts clinical trials to test new therapies and explain human biology as it relates to diabetes and its treatment. His current research focuses on exploring beta cell biology and the anti-beta cell immune response underlying type 1 diabetes.

Projects

• Human Islet-Infiltrating T cell Biology: Reactivity, Structure and Function
• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=David+Harlan

Bio

Matthias Hebrok is an Professor in Diabetes Research and Director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco. His research focuses on the mechanisms that underlie mammalian pancreas organogenesis and pancreatic diseases, including diabetes and pancreatic cancer. His laboratory has made seminal contributions to our understanding of how embryonic signals control the fetal development of the pancreas and its insulin-producing beta cells. His recent work has implemented the information gained from these studies to generate functional beta cells from human stem cell populations for cell therapy purposes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_mhebrok?hilite=Matthias+Hebrok

Projects

• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems
• Using Human Stem Cell-derived Thymic Epithelium to Remodel T1D Immune Tolerance

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Matthias+Hebrok

Bio

Dirk Homann is a physician and immunologist/virologist in Berlin, Boston, Paris and La Jolla, CA. His research focuses on the development, adaptation and optimization of therapeutic strategies that effectively curtail (autoimmunity) or embellish (infectious disease) T cell responses with prophylactic and/or curative intent. Dr. Homann has expanded his research program to encompass a broader context of pancreatic islet cell biology and histopathology in human T1D, and he has launched multiple collaborative efforts to better leverage complementary expert knowledge, unique technology access and more effective overall implementation of research strategies.

Projects

• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Human Islet-Infiltrating T cell Biology: Reactivity, Structure and Function
• Exploiting the power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to elucidate the complex interactions of islet and immune cells in human type 1 diabetes pancreata

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Dirk+Homann

Bio

Jing Hughes is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Lipid Research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. Her research focuses on the islet cell-cell interactions and the regulation of islet hormone secretion.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-jing-hughes

Projects

• Primary Cilia in Human T1D Pancreas

Bio

Christopher Hughes is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His lab has identified several genes involved in regulating the multiple steps of angiogenesis and are developing reagents to specifically interfere with these processes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_chughes?hilite=Chris+Hughes

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease
• Modular Monitoring of Hormone Release from Human Islets
• A 3D Vascularized Islet Biomimetic to Model Type 1 Diabetes

Bio

Dan Huh is an Associate Professor of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a pioneer of “organ-on-a-chip” technology, and his research group at Penn focuses on developing microengineered models of human physiological systems for a wide variety of biomedical applications.

Projects

• Microphysiological Systems for Modeling Autoimmunity in Type 1 Diabetes
• A Vascularized 3D Biomimetic for Islet Function and Physiology

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Dan+Huh

HIRN Webinar:

Projects

• Cooperativity between Calcium and cAMP-inducing Agents in Human Alpha and Beta Cells

Bio

Albert Hwa is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. His interests are in the basic mechanisms underlying the organogenesis and regeneration of pancreatic islets during health and disease; generation of islet cells from stem cells for disease modeling and regenerative medicine.

Bio

Eddie James is a HIRN New Investigator and a Principal Investigator at Benaroya Research Institute. His research involves applying tetramers to identify the chemical patters recognized by T cells in desirable protective immune responses directed against viruses (such as tetanus and HPV) and in undesirable destructive immune responses directed against self or therapeutic proteins (including GAD, insulin, and Factor VIII).

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-ejames

Projects

• HLA multimer based characterization of Islet Resident CD4+ T Cells that Target Beta Cell Epitopes and Neo-epitopes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Eddie+James

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Alok Joglekar is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Research Professor of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. His research aims to examine the shifting antigenic landscape of anti-tumor T cell responses, determine the fundamental rules of TCR-pMHC interactions, and to investigate novel immunotherapies to autoimmune diseases.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-alok-joglekar

Projects

• Identification of the Cognate Epitopes of Autoreactive T Cells in T1D

HIRN Webinar:

Lab:

https://tinyurl.com/kaddislab

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_jkaddis

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Klaus Kaestner Professor in Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of the Functional Genomics Core at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interest is in employing modern genetic, genomic and epigenomic approaches (ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, gene targeting, tissue-specific and inducible gene ablation, CyTOF) to understand the molecular mechanisms of organogenesis and physiology of the liver, pancreas and gastrointestinal tract. Disease areas targeted by our research include diabetes and cancer.

Projects

• Drivers and Consequences of Beta Cell DNA Damage in Type 1 Diabetes
• Epigenetic Rejuvenation of Human Beta-Cells
• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)
• The Role of Senescent Beta Cells in Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes
• A New Immunodeficient Mouse Model with Stable Hyperglycemia for the Study of Human Beta-cells
• Can Genomic Mosaicism explain the Lobular Nature of Type 1 Diabetes?
• Mass Spectrometry-based Proteome Maps for Human Islet Cells

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Klaus+Kaestner

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Roger Kamm is a Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Kamm research group works on five broad areas: Biological Machines/Microfluidics, Angiogenesis/Vasculogenesis, Neurological Diseases, Cancer, and Simulation and modeling.

Bio

Mark Kay is a Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Stanford University. His laboratory is focused in the development of gene transfer vectors for gene therapy as well as manipulating non-coding RNAs for therapeutic purposes. His research has focused on two vector systems, mini-circles and recombinant AAVs (rAAV). Using gene transfer vectors, we studied the potential of using transcriptional-based RNAi to treat human disease.

Projects

• In vivo Targeting of Diabetes-relevant Human Cell Types with rAAV Vectors
• Gene Therapy for Diabetes

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Sally Kent is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School. My research focuses on the area of the autoimmune response in human T1D: in particular, T cell responses in the periphery, in spleen and pancreatic lymph nodes and in islet-infiltrating lymphocytes from subjects with T1D, at-risk for T1D and from controls.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_skent?hilite=Sally+Kent

Projects

• Human Islet-Infiltrating T cell Biology: Reactivity, Structure and Function
• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D
• Characterization of in silico Reconstruction of TCRs for Modeling Autoreactive T cells in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Sally+Kent

Bio

Timothy Kieffer is a Professor, Cellular & Physiological Sciences and Surgery, University of British Columbia. He is also the Chief Scientific Officer at Viacyte. His laboratory is focused on islet biology and the development of novel gene and cell therapy approaches to treat diabetes.

Bio

Seung Kim is a Professor of Developmental Biology and Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the developmental biology of the pancreas, a vital organ with endocrine and exocrine functions in the vertebrate digestive tract. One goal of our work is to translate our studies into novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for common pancreatic disease states in humans, particularly diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer.

Projects

• CAR T Cell Targeting of Human Islets
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Therapeutic Targeting of Human Islets with Recombinant Regulatory T Cells
• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas
• Exploiting the power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to elucidate the complex interactions of islet and immune cells in human type 1 diabetes pancreata

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Seung+Kim

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/hirecstaff_dko

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

Bio

Hirotake Komatsu is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Translational Research & Cellular Therapeutics at City of Hope. His expertise is derived from a broad training in medicine and basic research in the fields of pancreas surgery and pancreatic islet transplantation.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-hirotake-komatsu?hilite=%27hirotake%27

Projects

• Vascular Network-mimetic Oxygen-Transporting Mesh for Islet Graft

Bio

Vira Kravets is a HIRN Emerging Leader Award Recipient. She recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor II at the University of California San Diego. Jointly appointed to the Department of Bioengineering and Department of Pediatrics. She is currently leading interdisciplinary projects in search for the underlying causes for Diabetes. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation supported Fellow, skilled in Islet Biology, Surface Plasmon Resonance, Microscopy, Optics and Public Speaking

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-vira-kavets

Projects

• Beta-cells 1st Responders and Functional Paracrine Networks in Healthy and Diabetic Human Islets

Bio

Rohit Kulkarni is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-Head of the Section on Islet & Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center. His research explores the significance of growth factor signaling mechanisms in the regulation of islet biology by creating genetic models to examine the roles of insulin/IGF-1 receptors and their substrate proteins.

Projects

• Development of Small Molecule-based Methods for Targeted Cargo Delivery to Beta Cells
• Interrogation of Dynamic RNA Modifications in Beta Cells in Type 1 Diabetes
• Using ex vivo, in vivo Models and Patient Mutations to Interrogate Pancreatic Exocrine-Endocrine Cross Talk
• Regulatory Networks and Biomarkers of Beta-cell Dysfunction and Apoptosis
• One-compound, one-islet: A High-throughput Platform for Small-molecule Discovery

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Rohit+Kulkarni

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Irina Kusmartseva is the Director of the JDRF nPOD Organ Processing and Pathology Core. She has unique experience with the molecular and primary cell culture. Her key area of expertise includes mechanisms of immunoregulation in inflammation, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Irina+Kusmartseva

Bio

Maggie Lam is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her research focuses on mass spectrometry and computational techniques to understand the mechanisms driving disease progression in humans, protein dynamics, protein alternative isoform, and protein annotation methods.

Projects

• Alternative RNA Splicing Events Contribute to the Onset of islet dysfunction in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Maggie+Lam

Bio

Karla Leavens is a HIRN Emerging Leader Award Recipient and Pediatric Endocrinologist in the Division of Endocrinology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Gadue Lab.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-paul-gadue-phd

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-karla-leavens

Projects

• Investigation of the Role of HNF1A in Increasing Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes
• A Vascularized 3D Biomimetic for Islet Function and Physiology

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=karla+leavens

Projects

• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Bio

Wen-Hong Li is an Associate Professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is an endowed Scholar in Medical Research in the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry.

Projects

• Ultra-sensitive Probes for High Resolution Imaging of Hormone Secretion in Islet Cells of Physiological Preparations

Bio

Heiko Lickert is a Professor and Chair of Beta Cell Biology in the Medical Faculty of the Technical University Munich, the Director of the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research and Principal Investigator in the Institute of Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Heiko+Lickert

Bio

Amelia Linnemann is a HIRN Emerging Leader Award Recipient and a HIRN New Investigator. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her primary research focus is to understand mechanisms of pancreatic β-cell death/survival, islet compensatory adaptation to cellular stress, and how these factors contribute to diabetes pathogenesis.

Lab:

https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/26337/linnemann-amelia

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-linnemann

Projects

• Real-time in vivo Analysis of Islet Redox Dynamics
• Functional and Molecular Characterization of the Human Islet Interferon Alpha Response

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Amelia+Linnemann

Bio

Chengyang Liu is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery and the Director of the Human Islet Laboratory & Clinical GMP Facility at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Projects

• Determining the Intrinsic and Environmental Signal Contributing to Early T1D Progression

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Chengyang+Liu

Bio

Bayou Liu is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah. His research focuses on autoimmune diseases (e.g., type I diabetes) via understanding self-antigen recognition by the immune system.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-baoyu-liu

Projects

• On the Plasticity of Beta-cell Antigen Recognition by Diabetogenic CD8 T cells

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Baoyu+Liu

Bio

Emma Lundberg is a Professor in Cell Biology Proteomics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and Director of the Cell Atlas, of the Human Protein Atlas program. She recently joined the Stanford University Bioengineering Department as an Associate Professor of Bioengineering. Her research is focused on spatial proteomics and cell biology.

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Bio

Patrick MacDonald is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Alberta and the Director of the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) IsletCore. His research focuses on pancreatic islet function in health and diabetes. The research from his laboratory has spanned areas that include biophysical characterization of ion channels, intracellular signal transduction and exocytosis, and the cellular regulation of glucagon secretion.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/?s=Patrick+MacDonald

Projects

• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Patrick+MacDonald

Bio

Rene Maehr is an Associate Professor in Molecular Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. His research focuses on investigating how normal differentiation of the thymic epithelial cell lineage is regulated, and recapitulating that process with pluripotent stem cells.

Projects

• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Rene+Maehr

Bio

Mohsen Khosravi Maharlooei is an Associate Research Scientist at the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology. His research is focused in "immune tolerance", specifically basic and translational researches in the fields of autoimmunity, transplantation and cancer.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-megan-sykes-md

Projects

• Mice with Autologous Human T1D-Derived Immune Systems and iPSC-Derived Beta Cells

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=mohsen+khosravi+maharlooei

Bio

Dustin Maly is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. His research focuses on generating novel signaling proteins that can be controlled with cell permeable small molecules.

Projects

• Partial Antagonists of IRE1 RNASE - 'pairs' - to treat type 1 diabetes

Bio

Clayton Mathews is a Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida. His studies seek to improve our collective understanding on the means by which type 1 diabetes develops, both in humans and in mouse models of the disease. His efforts are extremely novel in that while the majority of researchers addressing the notion of how the disease develops focus on identifying defects in cells of the immune system.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_cmathews?hilite=Clayton+Mathews

Projects

• Defining Islet Heterogeneity Using Single Islet Transcriptomics
• Genetic Regulation of Human Beta Cell Destruction
• Exploiting the power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to elucidate the complex interactions of islet and immune cells in human type 1 diabetes pancreata
• Regulatory Networks and Biomarkers of Beta-cell Dysfunction and Apoptosis
• Engineering a Human Microphysiological System for the Characterization of Islet-Immune Interactions

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Clayton+Mathews

Bio

Thomas Metz is a principal investigator in the Integrative Omics group within the Biological Sciences Division and is the team lead for a group of scientists that focuses on development and applications of high throughput metabolomics and lipidomics methods to various biological questions. His research interests span the development of both untargeted and targeted metabolomics and lipidomics capabilities, based on liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, both for fundamental studies of metabolism and metabolic interactions

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D
• Single Cell Resolution of Omics Analysis of T1D Islets

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=thomas+metz

Bio

Everett Meyer is an Assciate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School. His research focus is in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and Treg cell immunotherapy, with an emphasis on the treatment of graft-versus-host disease as well as immune tolerance induction for transplantation and autoimmunity. He is an expert on the role of T-cell populations in immune dysregulation, specifically through the mechanistic study of how CD1d-restricted invariant NKT mediate allergy and asthma in both mouse models and human clinical samples.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_emeyer?hilite=Everett+Meyer

Projects

• CAR T Cell Targeting of Human Islets
• Therapeutic Targeting of Human Islets with Recombinant Regulatory T Cells

Bio

Jeffrey Millman is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. His research focus is in the in vitro production and study of pancreatic insulin-producing β cells from human pluripotent stem cells for use in cellular replacement therapy and drug screening.

Projects

• Epigenomic Engineering of Stem Cell-Derived Pancreatic Cells

Bio

Raghavendra Mirmira is the Director of the Department of Medicine Translational Research Center and Professor of Medicine in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Chicago. His research focuses his efforts on the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and the biology of the islet. His laboratory is interested in three key areas: the role of mRNA translation in the cellular response of islet β cells to inflammation; the role of lipoxygenases in dysfunction of β cells in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes; and the identification of biomarkers of β-cell stress and death in diabetes.

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Mirmira

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Ali Naji is Professor of Surgical Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His research efforts have focused on the immunobiology of transplantation and immune pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes

Projects

• Drivers and Consequences of Beta Cell DNA Damage in Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)
• Microphysiological Systems for Modeling Autoimmunity in Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=ali+naji

Bio

Hiroyuki Nakai is a Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. His research goals are to comprehensively understand the biology of recombinant AAV vectors and the vector-host interactions and to develop new AAV vector-mediated gene and cell therapies to treat various human diseases.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_hnakai?hilite=Hiroyuki+Nakai

Projects

• In vivo Targeting of Diabetes-relevant Human Cell Types with rAAV Vectors
• Gene Therapy for Diabetes

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Ernesto Nakayasu is a senior research scientist focused on understanding molecular mechanisms of diseases. Nakayasu has been applying systems biology and mass spectrometry-based omics measurements to study how pathogens and metabolic alterations cause human diseases; the goal is to identify diagnostic and therapeutic targets. He has been integrating multi-omics approaches to develop biomarkers of diseases and to study signaling and metabolic pathways that are altered or targeted in infectious and metabolic diseases.

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• BioStructure & Function Team Leader
• Alternative RNA Splicing Events Contribute to the Onset of islet dysfunction in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=ernesto+nakayasu

Bio

Grace Nauman was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Sykes Laboratory at Columbia University. She is currently a scientist at Mitobridge. Her HIRN research was focused on improving human antigen presenting cell reconstitution in the Personalized Immune Mouse system.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-megan-sykes-md

Projects

• Mice with Autologous Human T1D-Derived Immune Systems and iPSC-Derived Beta Cells

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Grace+Nauman

Bio

Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc is currently an Assistant Project Scientist in the Laboratory of Maike Sander at the University of California, San Diego. Her HIRN research focuses on establishing 3D organotypic culture models of pancreatic cells derived from hESCs. Identify strategies to vascularize islet organoids in 3D culture.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-maike-sander-md

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Kim-Vy+Nguyen-Ngoc

Bio

Joyce Niland, Ph.D., holder of City of Hope’s Estelle & Edward Alexander Chair in Information Sciences, is professor and chair in the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Discovery Science within the Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute at City of Hope. An internationally recognized leader in her field with hundreds of publications to her name, she has more than 30 years of experience in biostatistics, biomedical informatics, computational statistics, system development and deployment, and collaboration in translational research.

Lab:

https://tinyurl.com/nilandlab

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_jniland

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Scott Oakes’s laboratory studies how mammalian cells commit “suicide” in response to various forms of damage and what goes wrong with this process in cancer and other diseases. In particular, they focus on a type of stress that occurs when the cell’s protein folding factory—an organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum—is overwhelmed and protein quality control fails. He is actively engaged in developing drugs to control cell fate under these conditions, which have potential to benefit patients with diseases from cancer to neurodegeneration.

Projects

• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=scott+oakes

Bio

Feroz Papa is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. His lab uses molecular, cellular, and organismal approaches to address broad questions revolving around protein misfolding and disease. His research focuses in protein misfolding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) organelle.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_fpapa?hilite=Feroz+Papa

Projects

• Partial Antagonists of IRE1 RNASE - 'pairs' - to treat type 1 diabetes

Bio

Audrey Parent is a CMAI co-Investigator and a member of the Trans-Network Committee (TNC). She is Assistant Adjunct Professor and her research is focused on immune tolerance with a particular interest in the thymus.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-mark-s-anderson-md-phd

Projects

• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Audrey+Parent

Bio

Stephen Parker is an Associate Professor of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan. The major goal of his lab is to generate mechanistic knowledge about how disease susceptibility is encoded in the non-coding portion of the genome, with a focus on type 2 diabetes.

Projects

• Integrative Analysis of Multiomic Signatures and Cellular Function in Human Pancreas Across Developmental Timeline at Single-cell Spatial Resolution
• Determining the Intrinsic and Environmental Signal Contributing to Early T1D Progression

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=stephen+parker

Bio

Ricardo Pastori is Research Professor of Medicine, Immunology, and Microbiology and the Director of the Molecular Biology Laboratory at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. His laboratory has developed novel molecular tools and applied them to study β-cell biology and to improve the outcome of islet transplantation such as the development and utilization of protein transduction (PT) technology, a method that utilizes small protein transduction domains (PTDs), to deliver proteins into cells.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigatorprofile_pastori?hilite=Ricardo+Pastori

Projects

• High-Resolution Characterization of Human Ductal Progenitor Cells and their Regeneration Potential

Bio

Edward Phelps is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. His research focuses on biomaterials, regenerative medicine and immunoengineering.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_ephelps?hilite=Ed+Phelps

Projects

• Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem
• Engineering a Human Microphysiological System for the Characterization of Islet-Immune Interactions

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Ed+Phelps

Bio

Vincent Poitout is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Montreal. His research focuses on the regulation of pancreatic beta-cell function and its dysregulation in type 2 diabetes. He is exploring the role of nutrient-sensing G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) and Regulators of G protein Signaling (RGS proteins) in pancreatic islet function and glucose homeostasis.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/Resource/Dataset/f9b28b76-91dc-4a3f-a0fd-1c762254a3cb

Bio

Al Powers is a Professor of Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University. He is also the Director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, Director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center, and Chief of the Vanderbilt Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism. His research focuses on pancreatic islet biology, vascularization, development, regeneration, and imaging.

Projects

• Integrative Analysis of Multiomic Signatures and Cellular Function in Human Pancreas Across Developmental Timeline at Single-cell Spatial Resolution
• High-Resolution Analysis of Juvenile Human Pancreas Maturation
• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Therapeutic Targeting of Human Islets with Recombinant Regulatory T Cells
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas
• Exploiting the power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to elucidate the complex interactions of islet and immune cells in human type 1 diabetes pancreata
• Single Cell Analysis of the Human Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Al+Powers

Bio

Stephen Quake is a Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University and is co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Quake has invented many measurement tools for biology, including new DNA sequencing technologies that have enabled rapid analysis of the human genome and microfluidic automation that allows scientists to efficiently isolate individual cells and decipher their genetic code. Quake is also well known for inventing new diagnostic tools, including the first non-invasive prenatal test for Down syndrome and other aneuploidies.

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Stephen+Quake

Bio

Sasanka Ramanadham is a Professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology (CDIB) and senior scientist in the Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC).

Projects

• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=sasanka+ramanadham

Bio

Dr. Chris Rhdoes is the Research and Early Development, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), BioPharmaceuticals R&D, and Chair of AstraZeneca’s postdoc programme. He is a renowned leader in the field of diabetes, obesity and metabolism research, with a career spanning over three decades. He has more than 180 published manuscripts, and has held industry and academic leadership roles at top institutions that include Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington. Chris is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, Department of Medicine

Bio

Camillo Ricordi is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami (UM) in Florida. He serves as Director of the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) and the Cell Transplant Program. Dr. Ricordi been serving as Responsible Head of the NIH-funded cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) Human Cell Processing Facility (1993-present), for the manufacturing of advanced human cell and other biologic products.

Projects

• Aptamer Chimeras for the in vivo Modulation of Beta Cell Mass and Immunogenicity
• High-Resolution Characterization of Human Ductal Progenitor Cells and their Regeneration Potential
• Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Camillo+Ricordi

Bio

James Riley is a Professor of Microbiology at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His lab studies the signaling pathways that control primary human T cell activation and function with special attention to how these manipulations can be exploited to develop T cell therapies for HIV, autoimmune disease and cancer. The lab is also focused on designing HIV resistant, HIV specific T cells to be key players in the HIV Cure effort.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_jriley?hilite=James+Riley

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=James+Riley

Bio

Dr. Bart O. Roep is Professor of Diabetology, Immunopathology & Intervention and Director of the National Diabetes Center of Excellence at the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands and Visiting Professor of the Danish Diabetes Academy. He is also Founding Chair and Professor of Medicine of the Department of Diabetes Immunology, and holds the Chan Soon-Shiong Shapiro Distinguished Chair in Diabetes at the Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope in Los Angeles.

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/hirecstaff_lrouse

Projects

• Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC)

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_mrupnik?hilite=marjan+rupnik

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Bio

Holger Russ is a HIRN New Investigator and recently became an Associate Professor at the University of Florida, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the Diabetes Institute. His research focuses on using human stem cells to generate novel sources of beta cells for transplantation and to model human T1D in a dish.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/profile-rholger

Projects

• Elucidating the Human Beta Cell Translatome in Health and Disease

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Holger+Russ

Bio

Guy Rutter is a Professor of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics at Imperial College of London. His research focuses on signal transduction in the pancreatic β-cell in health and disease - my chief focus is in using functional genomics at the cellular and whole organism level to dissect the role of genes associated with Type 2 diabetes.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Guy+Rutter

Bio

Juan Alvarez is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Research Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Currently he is investigating the pathways by which thyroid hormones regulates skeletal muscle physiology and the role of type-2 deiodinase in muscle biology and its importance to plasma T3 pool.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator-profile-joao-pedro-werneck-de-castro

Projects

• In vivo effects of physical exercise on human islet structure and function

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Joao+Pedro+Werneck+de+Castro

Bio

Nilanjana Samanta is the Data Curator for the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP) Pancreas Database (PancDB). She uses her data analysis skills for meaningful interpretation of factors associated with health outcomes, monitor healthcare access, and health disparity.

Bio

Maike Sander is a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Co-Director of the Center on Diabetes in the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UCSD. Her primary research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the formation and function of the diverse cell types of the pancreas, in particular the insulin-producing beta cells. A recent major focus has been to establish a human pluripotent stem cell-based pancreatic beta cell differentiation platform to model mechanisms that underlie the pathogenesis of diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_msander?hilite=Maike+Sander

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease
• Functional Testing of Candidate HSC-derived Islet Cells
• Single Cell Analysis of the Human Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes
• A 3D Vascularized Islet Biomimetic to Model Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Maike+Sander

Bio

Dr. Leslie Satin is a Professor of Pharmacology in the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Satin’s research has combined several strands, involving studies of the electrophysiology of neurons and synaptic changes after traumatic brain injury, the production of oscillations in neurosecretory cells and their theoretical basis, and the regulation of intracellular free Calcium and ion channels by cell fuel metabolism. Dr. Satin is an expert on the cellular signaling mechanisms, ion channel biophysics, the application of theoretical models to biomedical systems, and synaptic mechanisms of plasticity in the brain. He has served on the editorial boards of Neurochemistry International, Endocrinology, Endocrine, Diabetes, J. Biol. Chem., and American Journal of Physiology. He has served on many NIH study sections, including those devoted to TBI and stroke, and diabetes and metabolic diseases.

Projects

• A Stress-Induced Vicious Cycle in the Development of T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Leslie+Satin

Bio

Diane Saunders is a Research Instruct with the Powers & Brissova Lab at the Vanderbilt University. She is currently leading efforts in multiplexed imaging and characterization of the young human pancreas, including delineation of endocrine-immune cell interactions and the establishment of islet architecture. Diane is also the Co-Scientific Director of Pancreatlas, an online image resource that houses reference datasets from human pancreas samples.

Projects

• High-Resolution Analysis of Juvenile Human Pancreas Maturation
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Vanderbilt Univ.)
• Molecular Mechanisms of Physiologic Beta Cell Growth in Juvenile Human Pancreas

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=DIane+Saunders

Bio

Desmond Schatz, MD is Professor and Interim Chair of Pediatrics, Medical Director of the Diabetes Institute and Director of the Clinical Research Center within the CTSI at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is the PI of the University of Florida Clinical Center participating in the NIH-funded TrialNet (a founding member of the DPT-1 in 1994). He served as President of Science and Medicine of the American Diabetes Association in 2016.

Projects

• Non-invasive Detection of Cell Death in Type 1 Diabetes: Insight into Novel Disease Mechanisms
• Non-invasive Diagnosis of Human Beta Cell Damage and Death
• Survival and Potential of Insulin-deficient Beta Cells in Type 1 Diabetes

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Desmond+Schatz

Bio

Anath Shalev is the chair of the Consortium of Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS) and a member of the Trans-Network Committee (TNC). She is the Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center, Professor of Medicine and Senior Scientist. Her research focuses on Molecular biology of diabetes, beta cell biology, apoptosis, oxidative stress, transcriptional regulation of gene expression, and diabetes complications.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_shalev

Projects

• Development of an Early Diagnostic Biomarker and Novel Treatment Strategy for T1D
• Targeting TXNIP to Enhance Beta Cell Mass in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Anath+Shalev

Bio

Leonard Shultz is a Professor at the Jackson Laboratory. His research leverages immunodeficient mouse models for translational studies on human hematopoiesis, immunity, autoimmunity, infectious diseases, diabetes, regenerative medicine and cancer.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_lshultz?hilite=Leonard+Shultz

Projects

• Humanized Mouse Avatars for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Leonard+Shultz

Bio

Scott Soleimanpour is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Director for T1D Basic Research in the University of Michigan Caswell Diabetes Center. His lab focuses on the molecular and genetic regulation of the mitochondrial life cycle, with a focus on mitophagy, a pathway to dispose of unhealthy or damaged mitochondria.

Projects

• A Stress-Induced Vicious Cycle in the Development of T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=scott+soleimanpour

Bio

Stephan Speier is a Professor of Physiology and the Director of the Institute of Phyiology at Technische Universität Dresden in Dresden, Germany. His lab studies islet cell physiology within an intact tissue environment or the systemic setting. He investigates the role of beta cell mass and function at distinct stages of diabetes pathogenesis and aims to discover novel therapeutic targets for beta cell protection and recovery in type 1 and type 2 diabetes

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_speier

Projects

• In situ Analysis of Functional Endocrine, Vascular, and Immune Cell Interactions During Early Postnatal Development of the Human Pancreas

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Stephan+Speier

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Cherie Stabler is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on the engineering of cell-based tissues for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, specifically the development of novel biomaterials for: cellular encapsulation; three-dimensional scaffolds; and in situ oxygen and drug release. Her laboratory works across the spectrum of research, from polymer development, benchtop studies, and preclinical models, to clinical translation.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Cherie+Stabler

Projects

• Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem
• Engineering a Human Microphysiological System for the Characterization of Islet-Immune Interactions

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Cherie+Stabler

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Ben Stanger is the Director of the Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center (PCRC), the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research, and a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. His laboratory investigates multiple aspects of pancreatic cancer biology, including metastasis, tumor immunology, metabolism, and therapy resistance. His research integrates mouse models and human data to identify new vulnerabilities that can be assessed clinically. Dr. Stanger is the chair of the Consortium of Human Islet Biomimetics (CHIB) and a member of the Trans-Network Committee (TNC).

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_bstanger

Projects

• Functional Testing of Candidate HSC-derived Islet Cells
• Microphysiological Systems for Modeling Autoimmunity in Type 1 Diabetes
• A Vascularized 3D Biomimetic for Islet Function and Physiology

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Ben+Stanger

Bio

Lawrence Stern is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UMass Chan Medical School. His research interest is in the biochemical processes that underlie cellular recognition and signaling. His lab concentrates on the immune system, because of its intrinsic importance to human health and disease, and because of its treasure of biochemical mechanisms by which cells communicate with their environment and with each other.

Projects

• Human Islet-Infiltrating T cell Biology: Reactivity, Structure and Function

Bio

Doris Stoffers is a HPAC Investigator and a member of the Trans-Network Committee (TNC). She is a the Director of the Pancreatic Islet Cell Biology Core, Director of the Pilot Feasibility Program and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the embryonic development and adult regeneration of the endocrine pancreas, and the relationship of defects in these pathways to the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus, a disease caused by a deficiency in the production or action of insulin.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)

Projects

• Linking Islet Cell Function and Identity from in vitro to in situ

Bio

Lori Sussel is the Director of Basic and Translational Research at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes. The main focus of the Sussel lab is to understand the complex transcriptional networks that regulate development, differentiation and function of the pancreas. Our early studies led to the ground-breaking discovery that a ghrelin-producing “epsilon” cell population normally resides in the fetal islet, and that a close lineage relationship exists between the islet beta and epsilon cell populations. We went on to identify several novel regulatory pathways that are essential for islet lineage specification, normal pancreas development and the maintenance of beta cell maturation.

Projects

• Lactate-mediated Metabolic Reprogramming of Beta Cells in T1D Contributes to their Enhanced Plasticity and Dedifferentiation
• Single Cell Resolution of Omics Analysis of T1D Islets
• Alternative RNA Splicing Events Contribute to the Onset of islet dysfunction in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Lori+Sussel

Bio

Megan Sykes is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Surgical Sciences (in Surgery) and Director, Columbia Center for Translational Immunology. Her research focus is on hematopoietic cell transplantation, organ allograft tolerance induction, xenotransplantation tolerance and Type 1 diabetes. The Sykes lab has pioneered minimal conditioning approaches for using HCT to achieve allograft tolerance.

Projects

• Islet-reactive TCR clones in humanized mice generated with type 1 diabetes patient vs. healthy control hematopoietic stem cells
• Mice with Autologous Human T1D-Derived Immune Systems and iPSC-Derived Beta Cells
• Modeling Autoimmune Pathogenesis and Beta Cell Destruction by T1D Immune Systems

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Megan+Sykes

Bio

Qizhi Tang is a Professor of Transplant Surgery and the Director, Transplantation Research Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on translating knowledge on mechanisms of immune tolerance into novel therapeutics for treating autoimmune diabetes and preventing transplant rejection.

Projects

• Tregs as Vehicles for Targeted Delivery of Therapeutic Payload to Human Islets
• Therapeutic Targeting of the Human Islet Environment

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/qizhi-tang-28a0a412/

Bio

Dr. Sarah Tersey is an islet biologist whose research focuses on the role of the ß-cell in the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The primary goal of her research focuses on understanding the molecular pathways that play a role in the development of diabetes. Specifically, pathways that include the enzymes 12-lipoxygnease and deoxyhypusine synthase. By using inhibitors against these pathways or creating genetic deletions of either of these genes, Dr. Tersey has shown that diabetes can be prevented. A second major focus of my research is the development of biomarkers that will best predict the likelihood of any one individual’s risk to develop type 1 diabetes. Within this concept, she demonstrated that the dysfunction of the pancreatic islet precedes the onset of type 1 diabetes. This research has changed the standard dogma of the islet as a silent bystander to the immune system, to the new way of thinking – that the pancreatic islet is a major player in its own demise during the pre-course of type 1 diabetes.

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=sarah+tersey

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Luc Teyton is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research. His research focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which the ligation of the T cell receptor to its ligand, an MHC-peptide complex, activates T cells.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_lteyton?hilite=Luc+Teyton

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Roland Tisch is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine. His research focuses on the investigation of mechanisms regulating autoimmune recognition and responses to self-proteins, and the development of “vaccines” to prevent and/or treat T1D, in addition to establishing tolerance for islet transplants.

Bio

Dr. Golnaz Vahedi is currently an Associate Professor of Genetics (with tenure) at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Golnaz. She studied Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology in Iran. As an independent investigator, she uses systems-based approaches to understand molecular details of gene regulation in the immune system. She is the recipient of a number of awards including the NIH Director’s Award (twice), NIAID K22 Career Transition Award (perfect score), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Award, W. W. Smith Charitable Trust, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Michael S. Brown New Investigator Research Award. She serves on the advisory boards of Cell Press journal Immunity and Science Immunology and is a standing member of GCAT study section.

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• HPAP T2D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program (Univ. Pennsylvania)
• Dissecting Transcriptomics and Epigenomic Signatures of Immune Cells in T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Golnaz+Vahedi

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Ben Voight is Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Bioinformatics Concentration at the University of Pennsylvania. His lab develops and utilizes statistical genetics, computational biology, and population genetics-based approaches to understand the biological underpinnings and evolutionary history of human traits and complex disease

Bio

Matthias von Herrath is a Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and Vice President, Novo Nordisk Research. His expertise and main strength is working at the interface of experimental research to interpret and refine early phase I/II clinical trials in order to optimize strategies for phase 3 trials and drug approval.

Bio

Bridget Wagner is the chair of the Consortium of Targeting and Regeneration (CTAR) and the Trans-Network Committee (TNC). Additionlly, she is a CTAR Investigator. She is also the Director of Pancreatic Cell Biology and Metabolic Disease in the Chemical Biology and Therapeutic Sciences Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she is also an institute scientist. Her research focuses on the chemical biology of diabetes, with the aim of identifying small molecules capable of increasing pancreatic beta cell number and function and the ultimate goal of discovering new therapeutic approaches for diabetes.

Lab:

https://www.broadinstitute.org/bios/bridget-wagner

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/investigator_profile_bwagner

Projects

• Development of Small Molecule-based Methods for Targeted Cargo Delivery to Beta Cells
• One-compound, one-islet: A High-throughput Platform for Small-molecule Discovery

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/Contributor/Index/bridget_wagner@hirnetwork.org

HIRN Webinar:

Bio

Xujing Wang is a NIH NIDDK Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases. Her interests are in data science, computation modeling, integrative genomics, network biology, and genotype-phenotype relationships.

Bio

Bobbie-Jo Webb-Robertson is currently the technical group manager of the Applied Statistics and Computational Modeling group, as well as leading a body of research in the development and application of advanced statistical methods for MS-based omics analyses. Her research interests includes the development of statistical inference models, largely machine learning, with application to diverse biomarker discovery problems.

Projects

• Biomarkers of Beta Cell Stress in Type 1 Diabetes (BetaMarker)
• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Bobbie+Jo+Web+Robertson

Bio

Matthew Wortham is an Assistant Adjunt Professor in the Sander Lab at the University of California, San Diego. His research is to define the mechanisms whereby beta cells detect and respond to changes in their metabolic environment.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-maike-sander-md

Projects

• A 3D Biomimetic Human Islet to Model Beta Cell Function in Health and Disease

Bio

Wenting Wu is an Assistant Research Professor of Medical & Molecular Genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research interests are in applying the genomics and bioinformatics tools into complex disease mechanism discovery and personalizing medicine, including transcriptome genomics, genomic variations/mutations, epigenetics, long noncoding RNAs etc.

Projects

• Integrated Stress Response in Human Islets during Early T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Wenting+wu

Bio

Guanlan Xu is an Instructor in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has found that diabetes induces the beta cell miR-204, which in turn represses insulin transcription by targeting and inhibiting the insulin transcription factor MAFA. In addition, Dr. Xu also works on developing strategies to halt beta cell loss in diabetes.

HIRN Investigator Profile:

https://hirnetwork.org/research_staff_gxu?hilite=Guanlan+Xu

Projects

• Development of an Early Diagnostic Biomarker and Novel Treatment Strategy for T1D

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Guanlan+Xu

Bio

Mingder Yang is the Director of the JDRF nPOD Admin Core at the University of Florida.

Lab:

https://hirnetwork.org/about/participants#short-profile-mark-atkinson-phd

Projects

• HPAP T1D: Human Pancreas Analysis Program for Type 1 Diabetes
• Integrated Program for Human Pancreas Procurement and Analysis

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Mingder+Yang

Bio

Ken Zaret is a Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on understanding ways that genes are regulated in order to allow one type of cell to change into another type of cell. Such “cell type control” occurs in embryonic development and tissue regeneration, when embryo or adult stem cells become specialized for tissue function.

Projects

• Functional Testing of Candidate HSC-derived Islet Cells
• A Vascularized 3D Biomimetic for Islet Function and Physiology

Bio

Joe Zhou is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. His research studies the pancreatic insulin-secreting beta-cells and the gut stem cells with the aim to developing new regenerative medicine approaches to treat diabetes, digestive failure, and inflammatory bowel diseases. By understanding how specific tissues are formed from stem cells, we apply master genes and signaling pathways to reprogram adult cells and regrow tissues in adult organs.

Projects

• Generating Novel Sources of Functional Human Insulin-secreting Cells for T1D Modeling

Investigator Contributed Resources:

https://resourcebrowser.hirnetwork.org/SearchResults/Results/?query=Joe+Zhou