Awards

Romina Bevacqua, PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Research Abstract: “Identification of Novel Regulatory Mechanisms Driving Human Beta-Cell Maturation and Function”
HIRN Consortium: CHIB
Date Awarded: November 15, 2023

Zeina Drawshy
Institution: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Title:  Graduate Student
Affiliation: HPAC (Yuval Dor)

• Oral Presentation Award

Zeina Drawshy is a 5^th year PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Yuval Dor. Her research focuses on the cell type-specific DNA methylation markers for accurately determining the fraction and addressing the function of the pancreatic cell types in human islet and pancreas specimens.

Miguel Medina-Serpas
Institution: University of Florida 
Title:  Graduate Student
Affiliation:  CHIB (Brusko)

• Oral Presentation Award

Michael Medina-Serpas is a Graduate Student in the laboratory of Dr. Todd Brusko. He has assembled a cohort of non-diabetic, at-risk, and T1D donors and present 13 donor-matched sets of pancreas and pancreatic lymph nodes (pLN) in which they assayed using spatial transcriptomics. He observed a global increase in inflammatory chemokine expression and detected an enriched immune signature in the pancreas of donors presenting with multiple islet autoantibodies independent of clinical disease status. Future directions include identifying common features of the immune response in both the pLN and pancreas and further identification of tissue specific processes that are associated with disease.

Liza Zamashanski
Institution: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Title:  Graduate Student
Affiliation: HPAC (Yuval Dor)

• Oral Presentation Award

 Liza Zamashanski is a MD PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Yuval Dor. Her research focuses on impaired RNA editing in islets models early stage Type 1 Diabetes. 

Catarina de Andrade Barboza
Institution: Miami University
Title: Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: HPAC (Joana Almaca)

• Poster Award

 Liza Zamashanski is a MD PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Yuval Dor. Her research focuses on impaired RNA editing in islets models early stage Type 1 Diabetes.

Gregory Golden
Institution: University of Jerusalem
Title: Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: HPAC (Michael Betts)

• Poster Award

Gregory Golden is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Betts in the Microbiology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He is searching for immune cells that respond to and eliminate insulin-producing cells during Type 1 Diabetes. He has developed a novel yet simple approach to co-incubate immune cells and target pancreatic islet cells from the same donor. This approach allows for the analysis of how both immune cells and islet cells respond when an autoimmune reaction is occurring and may give new insights into T1D  immune pathogenesis.

Mollie Huber
Institution: University of Florida 
Title:  Graduate Student
Affiliation:  CHIB (Clayton Mathews, Mark Atkinson & Edward Phelps)

• Poster Award

Mollie Huber is a graduate student co-mentored by Drs. Clayton Mathews, Mark Atkinson, and Edward Phelps at the University of Florida. Her work utilizes live pancreas tissue slices generated from human organ donor tissue to assess beta cell function and immune cell activity during the different stages of type 1 diabetes pathogenesis. She has found that beta cells have dysfunctional responses to high glucose prior to their death during diabetes development and that this dysfunction is not dependent on T cell infiltration. Instead, this functional defect may reside in the beta cell.  

Luciana Mateus Goncalves
Institution: University of Miami
Title: Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: HPAC (Joana Almaca)

• Poster Award

 Luciana Mateus Goncalves is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Joana Almaca in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology at the University of Miami. She studies Islet capillaries that are made of endothelial cells covered by mural cells named pericytes. These pericytes are crucial for vascular homeostasis, elucidating potential changes in their function/phenotype is critical for our understanding of Type 1 Diabetes pathogenesis. Her data shows that islet pericytes are dysfunctional and capillaries unresponsive at early stages of Type 1 Diabetes.

Stephan Ramos
Institution: Miami University,
Title: Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: HPAC (Joana Almaca)

• Poster Award

Stephan Ramos is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Seung Kim at Stanford University. He is studying novel methods to modulate the immune system and induce tolerance to transplanted pancreatic islets.

Rob Robino
Institution: Medical University of South Carolina
Title: Graduate Student
Affiliation: CMAI (Leonardo Ferreira)

• Poster Award

Rob Robino is a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Leonardo Ferreira at the Medical University of South Carolina. He studies beta cell replacement can cure type 1 diabetes. Hurdles to implement it include scarcity of beta cells and the need for immunosuppression. We provide proof-of-concept for a strategy to protect stem cell-derived beta cells from immune rejection using regulatory T cells.

Snegha Varghese
Institution: City of Hope
Title: Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: CTAR (Sangeeta Dhawan)

• Poster Award

Sneha Varghese is a CIRM Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Sangeeta Dhawan at City of Hope. Her research focus on DNA damage as a key driver for beta-cell defects in diabetes. Majority of the beta-cell growth in humans occurs within 5 years of birth via replication; our study establishes that replicating beta-cells are highly vulnerable to DNA damage, especially in this early growth phase. We have established that the Cohesin complex is indispensable for preventing DNA damage during beta-cell growth and  Cohesin deficiency drastically impairs beta-cell growth and function, suggesting that DNA damage in the beta-cells in early life may compromise their health in the long-term. 

Amish Asthana, PhD, Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Research Abstract: “A microwell perfusion plate for manufacturing & testing islet-like clusters”
HIRN Consortium: CHIB
Date Awarded: May 1, 2023

Jing Liu, PhD, Indiana University-Purdue University
Research Abstract: “Image based spatial transcriptomics to identify b cell phenotypes in T1D”
HIRN Consortium: CBDS
Date Awarded: May 1, 2023

Vrushali Agashe is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Professor Megan Sykes at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Vrushali’s research focuses on Type 1 Diabetes immune systems, and how self-reactive T cells escape thymic negative selection & enter periphery, where they can mediate pancreatic beta cell destruction.

Cristiane dos Santos, PhD
Institution: Vanderbilt University
 Title:  Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Affiliation: CBDS (Arrojo e Drigo Lab)

Cristiane dos Santos is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Rafael Arrojo e Drigo at Vanderbilt University. Dr. do Santos’ studies the effects of caloric restriction on pancreatic beta cell function and longevity. She observes that caloric restriction improves animal glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity.

Udi Ehud Knebel
Institution: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Title:  Doctoral Student
Affiliation: CBDS (Dor Lab)

Udi Ehud Knebel is a Doctoral Student in the laboratory of Professor Yuval Dor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studies the role of RNA editing in beta-cells, showing that this process prevents the accumulation of double-stranded RNA and the development of interferon-mediated islet inflammation and diabetes.

Leslie Wagner
Institution: Indiana University School of Medicine
Title:  Doctoral Student
Affiliation: CBDS (Linnemann Lab)

Leslie Wagner is a Doctoral Student in the laboratory of Associate Professor Amelia Linnemann at Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on how human beta-cells in the pancreatic islet exhibit a heterogenous response to cellular stressors, such as cytokines produced by the innate immune system following viral infection using intravital microscopy.

Gregory Golden, PhD
Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Title:  Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: CMAI (Betts Lab)

Gregory Golden is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the laboratory of Professor Michael Betts at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He completed his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Golden currently studies the immune landscape of the pancreas and associated secondary lymphoid organs and the dynamics of the immune system during Type 1 Diabetes development. He has a particular interest in the role of T cells in the autoimmune elimination of beta cells.

Abhishek Kulkarni, PhD
Institution: University of Florida 
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CBDS (Mirmira), CHIB (Brusko)

Abhishek Kulkarni is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Todd Brusko at the University of Florida. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University School of Medicine. He joined Raghu Mirmira as a postdoc at the University of Chicago, where he studied the role of the polyamines-hypusine pathway in human pancreatic islet inflammation. His current work is focused on studying the role of the co-stimulatory protein CD226 in the antigen-presenting cell (APC) – T cell interaction in the context of T1D pathogenesis.

Olha Melnyk, PhD
Institution: Indiana University School of Medicine
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CBDS (Linnemann)

Olha Melnyk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Associate Professor Amelia Linnemann at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Applied Sciences-Physics from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Dr. Melnyk is studying pancreatic beta cell physiology, with a focus on autophagic flux and the autophagy machinery, through the use of intravital microscopy.  During her PhD studies, she became interested  in nonlinear optics and advanced microscopy techniques for live cell imaging.

Ali Shilleh
Institution: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Title:  Graduate Student
Affiliation: CBDS (Russ)

Ali Shilleh is a 5^th year PhD Candidate in the Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Development program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the laboratory of Holger Russ. He is Serbian-born, Palestinian-raised and completed his BS from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and his MS in Nutrition and Biomedicine from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). Ali’s research focuses on determining the fate of human beta cells upon transplantation.

Wen-Hong Li, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern
 Medical Center
“Ultra-sensitive Probes for High Resolution Imaging of
Hormone Secretion in Islet Cells of Physiological Preparations” (HPAC)

Jeffrey Millman, PhD
Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis
“Epigenomic Engineering of
Stem Cell-Derived Pancreatic Cells” (CHIB)

Lori Sussel, MD
University of Colorado
Anschutz Medical Campus
“Lactate-mediated Metabolic Reprogramming of
Beta Cells in T1D Contributes to their
Enhanced Plasticity and Dedifferentiation” (CBDS)

Qizhi Tang, PhD
University of  California, San Francisco
“Tregs as Vehicles for Targeted Delivery of
Therapeutic Payload to Human Islets” (CMAI)

Mark Huising, PhD
University of California, Davis
“Cooperativity between Calcium and cAMP-inducing Agents
in Human Alpha and Beta Cells” (HPAC)

Ernesto Nakayasu, PhD
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
“BioStructure & Function Team Leader” (CBDS)

Giorgio Basile, PhD

Institution: Joslin Diabetes Center
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CTAR (Kulkarni Lab)

Giorgio Basile is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Rohit N. Kulkarni at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. He completed his PhD in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism from the University of Rome, Sapienza. His interest for the research in diabetes started during his doctoral studies, when he took over a project aimed to identify genetic causes of familiar forms of diabetes, under the supervision of Prof. Vincenzo Trischitta. His previous work was on the characterization of endogenous factors, as well as bioactive small molecules, that could promote human Beta Cell proliferation. His current research focuses on identifying key regulatory pathways of Beta Cell proliferation and how alterations in gene expression contribute to the loss of function of the Beta Cell in diabetes development.

Hugh Bender, PhD

Institution: Univ. California, Irvine
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CHIB (Hughes Lab)

Hugh Bender is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Christopher Hughes’ lab at the University of California, Irvine.  He received his Ph.D. in Developmental, Regenerative, and Stem Cell Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. During his time in the Hughes Lab, he has developed the Islet-Vascularized Micro-Organ — a novel, biomimetic tissue-on-chip platform for maintaining human islets in the lab.  His ongoing work seeks to incorporate human immune cells within this platform to better model beta cell damage during Type 1 Diabetes disease progression

Roberto Castro-Gutierrez

Institution: Univ. Colorado
Title:  Doctoral Graduate Student
Affiliation: CBDS (Russ Lab)

Roberto Castro-Gutierrez is currently a 5^th year PhD candidate in the Molecular Biology program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Roberto received his BS degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at El Paso.  His research uses genetically engineered stem cell derived beta-like cells (sBCs) to understand the underlying causes of autoimmune diabetes and to develop novel treatment modalities. His recent work established in vitro and in vivo platforms to evaluate the role of PD-L1 and HLA class I proteins in the immune protection of sBCs. He is interested in perusing a scientific career in the field of cell replacement therapy.

Dario F. De Jesus, PhD

Institution: Joslin Diabetes Center
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CBDS (Kulkarni Lab)

Dario De Jesus is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Rohit N. Kulkarni at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, where he holds an ADA Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. De Jesus joined the Kulkarni laboratory initially as a Fulbright Research Scholar during his Master’s studies. He later enrolled in the Graduate Program of Basic and Applied Biology (GABBA) at the University of Porto, Portugal and returned to the Kulkarni laboratory to complete his PhD focused on research related to metabolic reprogramming of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. He is currently interested in mRNA modifications and especially in the role of N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) in pancreatic islet cell function and survival in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

Xiaofeng Huang, PhD

Institution: Weill Cornell Medical College
Title:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CTAR (Zhou Lab)

Xiaofeng Huang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Qiao Zhou at the Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his B.S. in Biotechnology from Xiamen University in China and his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China. His current research goal is to develop a technology to derive large numbers of functional insulin-secreting cells from the abundant renewable sources of human gastric stem cells to treat Type 1 Diabetes.

Charles Lazimi

Institution: Univ. Florida
Title:  Doctoral Graduate Student
Affiliation: CHIB (Phelps Lab)

Charles Lazimi is a 1st year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida in the lab of Dr. Ed Phelps. He received his BS and MS degrees in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. While completing his master’s he was hired as a research scientist at L&L Biotech in Gainesville Florida where he developed skills in Molecular Cloning. His Masters capstone project consisted of sub-cloning a beta cell specific promoter into a GABA biosensor construct to detect endogenous GABA release in Human islets. The aim of his current research is to incorporate cloned biosensors into microphysiological systems to better characterize islet-immune interactions and islet neurotransmitter auto/paracrine signaling

Charanya Muralidharan

Institution: Indiana University
Title:  Doctoral Graduate Student
Affiliation: CBDS (Linnemann Lab)

Charanya Muralidharan is a 5th year PhD Student in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine in the lab of Dr. Amelia K. Linnemann. She received her Bachelor’s in Technology (B. Tech) in Bioinformatics from SASTRA University, India. She received her first Master’s in Science (MS) in Cell & Molecular Biology at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a 2^nd MS at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) School of Sciences in Biology. Her initial studies were in the lab of Dr. Susan Walsh where she studied pigmentation genetics in the context of Forensic phenotyping. Her current research is on autophagy in the beta cells in the context of type 1 diabetes by implementing various molecular biology techniques and intravital imaging.

Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc, PhD

Institution: Univ. California, San Diego
Title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CHIB (Sander Lab)

Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Maike Sander at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in Cell Biology with Dr. Andrew Ewald. During her time at the Sander lab, she has developed disease models to study diabetes using human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived islet cells. She established an organotypic culture model to vascularize hPSC-islets, which will serve as a platform for islet physiology and drug testing.

Benjamen O’Donnell, PhD

Institution: Univ. California, Irvine
Title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: CHIB (Hughes Lab)

Benjamen O’Donnell is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Hughes and the University of California, Irvine. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Saint Louis University before completing his PhD. in Bioinnovation at Tulane University. His dissertation focused on developing a microphysiological system modeling the effects of type II diabetes on an osteoarthritic synovial knee joint. His current work involves expanding an existing human vascularized micro-organ pancreatic islet model to incorporate circulating immune cells. This model will then be used to investigate the onset of type I diabetes and disease progression.

Julia Panzer, PhD

Institution: Univ. Miami
Title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Affiliation: HPAC (Caicedo Lab)

Dr. Julia Panzer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Alejandro Caicedo. She is trained as a food chemist and completed her PhD in Human Biology at the Technical University Dresden with Dr. Stephan Speier in Germany. During her doctoral studies she implemented the human slice platform to study islets in their native environment. Her current research focus on human islet development and alpha cell dysfunction in Type 1 Diabetes.