Research units - Immunology and Diabetes
Immunology and Diabetes
People with type 1 diabetes can’t make insulin, the hormone that regulates the body’s use of glucose. Insulin is produced by beta cells in the pancreas, which are found in small clumps of cells called islets. In type 1 diabetes, beta cells are mistakenly attacked and destroyed by the immune system. Our Unit is a strong diabetes-focussed team made up of four groups focused on human immunology, mouse models of diabetes, islet biology and immunogenetics.
Research overview
We are part of Australia's first Diabetes Centre for Clinical Research Excellence which is involved in all aspects of diabetes clinical research and care to improve the prevention and treatment of diabetes. Our work is funded mainly by the NHMRC and JDRF, and we collaborate with many other research teams locally, nationally and internationally.
A major accomplishment for our group has been establishing the Tom Mandel Islet Transplant Program (TMITP) in Melbourne. This highly collaborative program is helping people with unstable type 1 diabetes particularly those with recurrent severe hypoglycaemic episodes. Our program is part of the Australian Islet Transplant Consortium which includes Westmead Hospital in Sydney and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. After transplantation, all of our recipients have reduced their insulin requirements, with some no longer requiring insulin injections, and all have improved their glycemic control. The program provides a valuable opportunity for clinical research both on the transplant recipients and on the excess human islets obtained but not transplanted. In the future, this program will provide a platform for translating advances in islet cell therapy to clinical practice.
Research labs
Immunology Laboratory headed by Professor Tom Kay
Islet Biology Laboratory headed by A/Prof Helen Thomas
Immunogenetics Laboratory headed by Dr Tom Brodnicki
Human Immunology headed by Dr Stuart Mannering
Honours and PhD Projects
Differentiation of antigen-specific CTL (Immunology Lab)
Does insulin expression in APCs prevent diabetes after autoimmunity is established? (Immunology Lab)
Preventing type 1 diabetes using specific inhibitors of perforin (Islet Biology Lab)
Potential role for granzyme A in type 2 diabetes (Islet Biology Lab)
Genomic and functional analyses of a novel type 1 diabetes gene (Immunogenetics Lab)
How does bacterial infection affect susceptibility to type 1 diabetes? (Immunogenetics Lab)
Accelerating disease gene discovery using transposon mutagenesis (Immunogenetics Lab)
An assay to measure human autoimmune T-cell responses against islets (Human Immunology Lab)
A humanized mouse model of the autoimmune response against insulin (Human Immunology Lab)
Staff
Prof Thomas Kay
A/Prof Helen Thomas
Rochelle Ayala-Perez
Jonathan Chee
Lorraine Elkerbout
Stacey Fynch
Dr Kate Graham
Gaurang Jhala
Dr Mugdha Joglekar
Cameron Kos
Dr Bala Krishnamurthy
Dr Thomas Loudovaris
Lina Mariana
Dr Zia Mollah
Pravin Rajasekaran
Natalie Sanders
Dr Nirupa Sachithanandan
Dr Anne Thorburn
Jibran Wali
Dr Yuxing Zhao
Dr Tom Brodnicki
Dr Stuart Mannering
Michelle Ashton
Dr Colleen Elso
Leanne Mackin
Hong Sheng
Caroline McBride
Yue Li
Prerak Trivedi
Allison Irvin
Joshua Szanyi
Nancy Wang
Carolina Novak
May Abdulaziz Alsayb
Andra Necula
Janine Kuelich
Edward Chu
Publication Highlights
See individual Laboratories for selected publications