Professors Shoumo Bhattacharya and David Hodson and their teams will harness the immune-system-evading properties of tick saliva to develop long-lasting, effective beta cell therapies for type 1 diabetes. These therapies could transform the way the condition is treated by helping people to make their own insulin again, but for everyone to benefit scientists need to develop ways to produce an endless supply of healthy beta cells in the lab and to keep the type 1 immune attack at bay.
In the Oxfordshire area, around 7,860 people live with type 1 diabetes, a condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cell therapies to replace the destroyed cells are in development. However, the transplanted cells also attract immune system attacks, requiring recipients to take immunosuppressant drugs, which can lead to side effects and only provide temporary protection.
Chemical signals released from beta cells, called chemokines, act like beacons that lead the immune system to attack. Researchers have struggled to find ways to block these signals, because there are so many different types of chemokines.
Read the full story on the Radcliffe Department of Medicine.