Professor Anne Cooke, University of Cambridge and Professor Yuval Dor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Diabetes is a common life-long condition and the number of children being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is increasing. The symptoms can be controlled but there is no cure. For many, diabetes means living with daily insulin injections and the possibility of long-term damage to their health. How might stem cells help?
Type 1 diabetes results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Regenerative medicine aims to restore beta cell function in diabetics, by promoting the regeneration of these cells. However, to be effective, a therapy based on transplantation of beta cells must be accompanied by suppression of the immune attack that otherwise might destroy the regenerating cells.
To achieve this goal, we need to understand more about how to regenerate these cells, and why the immune system attacks them.
This collaborative project will bring together two leading laboratories specializing in autoimmune aspects of T1D (Cooke) and in beta cell regeneration (Dor).
About the Researchers
Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge
Professor Cooke was a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer from 1978 – 1990. She lectured at UCL from January 1991 before moving to the University of Cambridge first as a reader (1996) and then as Professor (2000).
Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Assistant Professor Dor studied for his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he is now Assistant Professor at the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research. Professor Dor spent 2001 – 2003 at Harvard University as a Post-doc.