Matthias von Herrath, M.D., La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, University of California, San Diego

Dr. Matthias von Herrath, Director of the Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI) at UCSD, has dedicated his career to the study of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Together with his post-doctoral associate Dr. Ken Coppetiers and research scientist Dr. Damien Bresson, he develops potential new drugs for the treatment of T1D with combination therapy. In addition, Dr. von Herrath and Dr. Coppieters study the way immune cells enter the pancreas as a patient is developing type 1 diabetes. These immune cells, called T-cells, invade the pancreas during early T1D onset. Dr. von Herrath and Dr. Coppieters are the first investigator to live (movie) image the T-cells while they destroy pancreatic beta-cells, which are the cells responsible for producing insulin.

In addition, Dr. von Herrath’s team was the first research group to successfully use multiple drugs to slow down the onset of T1D in mice. The next step is to translate this achievement to the clinic. Thanks to the nPOD program, Dr. von Herrath can study human tissues from the pancreas, spleen, lymph nodes, and blood from donors with T1D, in order to determine if the T-cells identified in mouse models are the same cells that destroy beta-cells in human type 1 diabetes. “The power of the nPOD program,” says Dr. von Herrath, “lies in the diversity of available tissues, and in our ability to investigate the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. The nPOD program is invaluable to this research.”