Elad Sintov, Ph.D., has big shoes to fill. He’s a JDRF-funded postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Doug Melton, Ph.D. (himself a JDRF grantee), at Harvard University. In 2014, Dr. Melton and his team published a strategy for generating insulin-producing beta cells from stem cells, providing a virtually unlimited supply for transplantation. But preventing immune rejection, without immunosuppressive drugs, remains a major challenge.

One avenue to overcome this is to produce the beta cells from stem cells that have been modified to be immune to a cellular attack. In other words, making insulin-producing beta cells unrecognizable to the immune system. Dr. Sintov aims to do that through genetic modification.

He has developed a platform through which he can explore the genome for potential targets, challenge them with the immune system, and identify genes that give the beta cells survival skills. It’s simple.

Wait a second, um, no.

“None of it is going to be easy,” Dr. Sintov says, noting that the JDRF award will allow him to devote his full attention to the proposed research, and he won’t have to worry about funding issues in the immediate future.

Hear Dr. Sintov talk about his research—and get introduced to many more JDRF-supported investigators—by visiting our new site Meet the Scientists, or watch the video below.

JDRF’s early-career funding enables promising scientists, like Elad, to focus their talent, ambition, and passion on improving life with T1D. Learn more about the researchers we fund, and learn how you can support their work to prevent, treat and—one day—find cures for T1D.