Victoria Kuznetsova is a third-year graduate student pursuing Ph.D. at the University of Miami Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She completed her undergraduate studies at Florida International University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Paolo Serafini, she is interested in advancing our comprehension of the T cell role in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and in manipulating T cell exhaustion in autoimmunity. She participates in the identification of two RNA aptamers highly selective for human and mouse beta cells. Building on these aptamers, she is developing bifunctional RNA therapeutics for modulating β cell biology in vivo and inhibiting the autoimmune process. She aspires to facilitate the targeted delivery of therapeutics to beta cells to maximize their efficacy and minimize potential off-target effects.