Opportunity Pool Projects

Summary of internally funded HIRN research projects utilizing network Opportunity Pool Funds.

2021 Emerging Leader Award Recipients

• Juan Alvarez, PhD, Harvard University
• Leonardo Ramos-Ferreira, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
• Vira Kravets, PhD, University of Colorado, Denver
• Karla Leavens, MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Robert Sharp, PhD, University of Florida

2018 New Investigator Award Recipients

• “Changes in Human Islet Microvasculature during Type 1 Diabetes” (HPAC)
  Joana Almaca, PhD, University of Miami

• “Targeting DNA Hydroxymethylation to Promote Human Beta Cell Function”  (CTAR)
  Sangeeta Dhawan, PhD, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope

• “Neuromodulation for Type 1 Diabetes: Harnessing Sensory Innervation to Promote Regeneration and Function of Insulin-Producing Cells” (CTAR)
  Abdelfattah El Ouaamari, PhD, Rutgers University

• “HLA Multimer based Characterization of Islet Resident CD4+ T Cells that Target Beta Cell Epitopes and Neo-epitopes” (CMAI)
  Eddie James, PhD, Benaroya Research Institute

• “Real-time in vivo Analysis of Islet Redox Dynamics” (CBDS)
  Amelia Linnemann, PhD, Indiana University

  “Elucidating the Human Beta Cell Translatome in Health and Disease” (CBDS)
  Holger Russ, PhD, University of Colorado, Denver

Completed Opportunity Pool Projects

• Antibodies for beta-cell subtype identification by immunohistochemistry 
• Can Genomic Mosaicism explain the Lobular Nature of Type 1 Diabetes?
• Characterization of in silico reconstruction of TCRs for modeling autoreactive T cells in T1D
• Exploiting the Power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to Elucidate the Complex Interactions of Islet and Immune Cells in Human Type 1 Diabetes Pancreata
• Exploiting the Power of CyTOF/Mass Cytometry (MC) to Elucidate the Complex Interactions of Islet and Immune Cells in Human Type 1 Diabetes Pancreata
• Functional Testing of Candidate HSC-derived Islet Cells
• Generation of Functional Endocrine Cell Receptor Stem Cell lines
• Islet-reactive TCR Clones in Humanized Mice Generated with Type 1 Diabetes Patient vs. Healthy Control Hematopoietic Stem Cells
• Mass Spectrometry-based Proteome Maps for Human Islet Cells
• A New Immunodeficient Mouse Model with Stable Hyperglycemia for the Study of Human Beta-cells
• The Proteome of Replicating Cells
• Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Human Islet and Pancreas ECM
• Real-time Detection of Insulin Surrogate Markers within Physiomimetic Islet Microsystems
• Workshop for Continued Harmonization of Beta Cell Death Assays