$2.2M grant to JAX Professor David Serreze will fund search for new approaches to fighting autoimmune destruction
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a life-threatening autoimmune disease in which the body fails to produce insulin, a hormone that is vital to transporting glucose into cells, where it serves as the primary energy source.
In T1D, immune cells known as T lymphocytes mount an aberrant response that destroys the insulin-producing cells within the pancreas. It’s now known that another type of immune cell, B lymphocytes, are involved in activating those aberrant T lymphocyte responses, so targeting B lymphocytes has been a clear goal of the diabetes research community.
However, a B-lymphocyte targeting strategy tested in a previous clinical trial was only partially effective as a possible T1D intervention approach. A new five-year grant totaling $2,178,319 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases will support research by Jackson Laboratory Professor David Serreze, Ph.D.Researches the genetic basis for immunological tolerance to endogenous (own) proteins, and the defects that can lead to autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes (T1D).David Serreze, Ph.D. , to identify strategies that may make B-lymphocyte targeting a more effective means of T1D intervention than is now possible.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: B-Lymphocyte Targeting Therapies for Autoimmune Diabetes, Grant Number 2R01DK095735-0