- To develop an immunomodulatory strategy to enhance long-term survival and immune protection of transplanted allogeneic islets in T1D diabetic mouse models, eliminating the need for systemic immunosuppression.
- To engineer a Pre-vascularized Subcutaneous Site for non-Invasive Allogeneic Islet Transplantation
- To develop a safe, islet-targeted non-viral gene delivery system using Nano2transfection to restore and immune-protect residual beta-cell mass, enabling early-stage T1D treatment and prevention.
The Dogan Laboratory pioneers the development of immunomodulatory therapies and pre-vascularized, non-invasive transplant sites to enable allogeneic islet transplantation without systemic immunosuppression in T1D. In parallel, the lab develops a novel, safe, and islet-targeted gene delivery system to restore and immune-protect pancreatic islets targeting the early stage of disease.
- Combining pre-vascularized subcutaneous transplant approaches to achieve enhanced immunoprotection and support of transplanted allogeneic islets without systemic immunosuppression to cure T1D.
- Improving beta cell survival and function in transplant location through immunomodulatory tissue-protective B cell therapy in T1D.
- Leveraging Imaging Mass Cytometry (IMC) to investigate immune cell composition and cell-cell interactions within the islet graft microenvironment to discover novel targets for graft acceptance.
- Delivering non-viral, targeted therapeutic cargo to pancreatic islets using Nano2transfection technology, with potential for clinical translation and large-scale economic application.
- Targeting the proinsulin processing pathway to prevent and/or reverse T1D.
Valentina Giai, PhD Student – University of Edinburgh (Research Student)
Sitong (Steve) Ye, MSc – Yale University, New Haven (Research Lab Technician)
Assia El Babsiri, MSc – University of Paris, Faculty of Pharmacy (Research Student)
Ben Shaer, BS candidate, MIT (high school research student)
Jihra James, BS candidate, Langston University (Research Student)
Esin Ozkan, MD – Bezmialem Vakif University, Türkiye (Research Student)
Aaruni Arora, MEng – Imperial College London (Research Student)
Katie Lu, MD Student – UCSF, San Francisco (Research Student)