Funding to Develop Novel Type 1 Diabetes Research Tools Awarded to the Diabetes Center of Excellence and Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The Diabetes Center of Excellence (DCOE) at UMass Chan Medical School was awarded funding to develop new tools to study Type 1 diabetes. The grant from the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science is aimed at accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into real-world solutions that improve human health, in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
Research in the laboratory of David Harlan, MD, co-director of the DCOE, focuses on uncovering why the immune system attacks insulin-producing beta cells—a defining feature of Type 1 diabetes. Immunologist Sally Kent, PhD, is collaborating to investigate how specific immune cells, particularly T cells, drive this autoimmune response.
A novel tool was developed by Sambra Redick, PhD, a Senior Scientist in the Harlan lab, in collaboration with WPI engineers. The technology enables researchers to isolate and study individual pancreatic islets—clusters of cells that include the insulin-producing beta cells—at a much higher level of precision.
This is important because Type 1 diabetes doesn’t affect all cells—or all patients—the same way. By analyzing single islets and even individual cells, researchers can better understand the variability of the disease and identify exactly what goes wrong at the cellular level.
Using donated human pancreas tissue, the team is applying advanced techniques including single-cell analysis and gene sequencing to map how the disease develops. The collaboration is also building systems to organize and analyze large datasets, helping researchers connect cellular behavior with patient characteristics and disease progression.
“Only by understanding what goes wrong can we begin to fix it,” said Dr. Harlan.
By combining biomedical research at UMass Chan with engineering innovation at WPI, the project aims to deliver deeper insights into Type 1 diabetes—and move closer to targeted therapies and, ultimately, a cure.