Principal Investigator Karen Cerosaletti, PhD, and colleagues have applied single-cell science to better understand type 1 diabetes with some surprising and significant findings. “Scientists have known for many years that immune cells called T cells are some of the bad cells in type 1 diabetes,” she says. “These T cells are part of an army that attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, destroying them so they can’t make insulin anymore.

Dr. Cerosaletti and her team are now working to understand when these unique T cells appear. “Can we find them before a patient actually has symptoms of type 1 diabetes?” she asks. “Do they change as the disease progresses? If so, then we may be able to use these cells to predict or monitor diabetes in each individual. And even more importantly, we may be able to target these bad cells through treatment to destroy or disarm them, halting destruction of the cells in the pancreas and preserving their ability to produce insulin. This would be a huge advance in our fight against type 1 diabetes.”