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

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

Projects

• A microwell perfusion plate for manufacturing and testing Islet-like clusters

Projects

• Identification of Novel Regulatory Mechanisms Driving Human Beta-Cell Maturation and Function

Projects

• Positron emission tomography to characterize beta cell mass in individuals from multiple stages in the progression of type 1 diabetes

Projects

• GABP is a novel regulator of beta cell metabolism and proliferation

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

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

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matthew Wortham is a Gateway Award Recipient and an Assistant Professor 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
• Metabolic requirements of pancreatic beta cell proliferation

Projects

• Gene regulatory programs driving metabolic maturation of human pluripotent stem cell derived β-cells