Investigator Spotlight: Sally Kent, Ph.D.

Institution: Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School

nPOD Project: Investigation of B cells in human islets and pancreatic lymph nodes in type 1 diabetes

As one of nPOD's most active investigators and the author of a number of publications in human type 1 diabetes, Dr. Kent utilizes nPOD tissues to answer fundamental immunological questions about type 1 diabetes in humans. She seeks to shed light on the inflammatory process in the lymph nodes draining the pancreas; specifically, to study the cells infiltrating the pancreas that are responsible for destroying insulin producing islet cells.

Dr. Kent is interested in autoantigen reactive B cells in the lymph nodes, and in defining their contributions to the inflammatory process. Dr. Kent is also interested in the T-cell response in humans and its role in beta cell destruction. She examines pancreatic draining lymph nodes in an effort to identify local antigens and to better understand how the autoimmune response is amplified in type I diabetes.  "Until nPOD, it was very difficult to get type 1 tissue for research," says Dr. Kent. "The nPOD network's continued efforts to actively seek tissues is the only way we will better understand the autoimmune process in individuals with type 1 diabetes."

To learn more about Dr. Kent's work, please visit her online in the Hafler Laboratory.

Type 1 diabetes-related research interests:

• Regulatory NKT cell function in human Type 1 diabetes in the periphery and pancreatic draining lymph nodes.
• Antigenic targets of human autoantigen reactive T cells and regulation of these cells in Type 1 diabetes in the periphery and from pancreatic draining lymph nodes.
• Frequency and the functional phenotype of autoreactive B cells in the pancreatic draining lymph nodes of type 1 diabetic subjects.  
• Memory autoreactive T cells and linkage with serum autoantibodies in the periphery of individuals at-risk for type 1 diabetes.