Sally Kent Receives Pioneer Award from the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPod)
Date Posted: Feb 28, 2018Sally Kent, PhD, was recognized by the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) with the Pioneer Award for her “continued dedication to create a world free of type 1 diabetes."
The Kent lab collaborates with dozens of international scientists who utilize the donated tissues to investigate the autoimmune response in patients with T1D. Dr. Kent's work focuses on T cell response to self-proteins or autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes. They are the cells that destroy the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets, leading to diabetes. Her research studies the autoreactive T cell repertoire in the periphery, spleen, pancreatic lymph nodes, and islet-infiltrating lymphocytes from donors with T1D, donors at risk for T1D, and control donors.
The islets we received from this donor are especially interesting because they allow us to study the T cells in the islets around the time of diagnosis. Having those cells to work with will help us understand the autoimmunity that happens at that point of diagnosis in this young adult,” said Dr. Kent. “Tissues donated by the families of these donors allow us to look at their islets to see what their T-cells were doing at the time."
The Kent Lab continues to ask, “Why are the immune cells attacking the insulin-producing cells in the body of a person with type 1 diabetes?” They are probing for answers to help design therapies to stop the autoimmune response.