Towards a cure for Type I diabetes mellitus

Summary

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Transfect a lentivirus construct expressing an immunosuppressive peptide in islet cells for the treatment of diabetes type I

Supervisors

Professor Nicholas Manolios, Dr Grant Logan.

Research location

Westmead - Westmead Clinical School

Program type

PHD

Synopsis

Type 1 diabetes is a T-cell mediated disease. Local production of an immunosuppressive peptide by means of gene therapy of islet cells would have a specific local T-cell effect while circumventing generalized immunosuppression. In this project islets will be isolated and transfected ex-vivo with a lentiviral construct engineered to secrete an immunosuppressive peptide, called core peptide (CP). The transfected islets will then be transplanted into HLA mismatched mice. It is hypothesized that the local release of immunosuppressive peptide will prevent rejection, enhance islet survival and control blood sugar levels.

Additional information

Funding available.

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Opportunity ID

The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 24