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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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