Abstract

Modeling Immune Mediated Beta Cell Destruction in Human Type 1 Diabetes with Organoids

Matthias von Herrath, Vice President and Senior Medical Officer, NovoNordisk; Professor La Jolla Institute, NovoNordisk

In the past 15 years we have been studying the pathology of human type 1 diabetes with access to donor pancreata through the human pancreatic organ donor consortium (nPOD). These studies have led to several findings, for example that certain cytokines are generated by beta cells themselves, sometimes under stress, and also that there are probably key factors that render beta cells susceptible to immune attacks. Mechanistically, the importance and meaning of these observations needs to be addressed in a suitable and easily manipulable in vitro system consisting of human islets and immune cells. We have built such a system in collaboration with the company InSphero and will discuss emerging findings.