UF Health study maps hidden immune signals in Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes researchers have made great progress in understanding the disease in the last two decades, even as a cure remains elusive.

Now they have something that benefits any scientific effort.

It’s a map.

University of Florida Health scientists have created one of the most detailed maps yet of gene activity in the pancreas of people with Type 1 diabetes. The map shows which genes are turned on, or expressed, and where they are active within the organ, helping researchers pinpoint the biological signals driving the disease.

By revealing those signals, the work highlights potential targets for new drugs to slow the disease or, perhaps one day, stop it altogether.

Researchers published their findings in Cell Reports on Tuesday.

“You’re looking at a map, almost like a topographical map of an organ or tissue and saying, in this particular ZIP code or region, these are the genes that are highly expressed,” said the study’s senior author, Todd Brusko, Ph.D., director of the UF Diabetes Institute and a leading diabetes researcher.