In the Breakthrough T1D CFK Centre of Excellence at UBC we are lucky to work with outstanding trainees. Four of these brilliant minds are helping the admin team organize events, initiate new events relevant to trainees within the Centre. You can learn more about each of their projects in the section below.
Samantha Mar (Lynn Lab): “I study the development of glucagon-producing pancreatic alpha cells using human embryonic stem cells. Towards this, I developed a reporter human embryonic stem cell line that allows us to see and purify alpha cells for research. We hope to apply our understanding of alpha cells to further improve cell therapies to treat T1D”.
Sing-Young (Johnson & Rideout Lab): “I’m interested in how beta-cells decide which proteins they should produce, and how much of them to make. Beta-cells are under incredible pressure to synthesise and process large amounts of insulin, which is a protein hormone, so they are very susceptible to stresses associated with all this protein production. By understanding how beta-cells can successfully manage this stress, we will be better able to design drug and cell therapies to improve beta-cell resilience and function for people living with T1D.”
Sonya Mangat (Levings Lab): “My research is focused on engineering immune cell therapies for type 1 diabetes. I’m utilizing cells that naturally regulate the immune system (i.e. regulatory T cells) and genetically editing them to better suppress the negative immune responses seen in both T1D and islet transplantation.”
Abby Gordon (Johnson Lab): “I study how the electrical activity of beta cells affects their survival during the early stages of type 1 diabetes. When the immune system attacks, beta cells are pushed to work harder, which can make them stressed and more vulnerable to dying. My research focuses on finding ways to calm this overactivity and keep beta cells healthy, with the ultimate goal of preventing or delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes altogether..“
