Sometimes, the funding that JDRF can provide for researchers is exactly the invitation they need to get into the field of type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Other times, sustained grants are the critical boost that someone with more experience needs in order to branch out and establish his or her own lab. Creating and sustaining a passionate pipeline of early-career researchers is one of JDRF’s ever-present goals.

• Manoj Gupta, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center. He’s comparing samples from people who have had T1D for more than 15 years. By studying proteins to determine why some people rapidly develop kidney complications and others don’t, Dr. Gupta may help develop therapies that benefit people with kidney complications.
• Chandrabali Bhattacharya, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s working on developing sensors that can detect glucose quickly. These smart insulin systems would be able to respond right away to elevated glucose levels, release the right amount of insulin and stop when glucose is normal.
• Monika Niewczas, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and assistant investigator at Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Niewczas is working to understand how the body develops diabetic kidney complications. She then plans to translate that research into therapies that will help individuals with the disease.
• Kacey Prentice, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Prentice is working to better understand beta cell function, so that she can help preserve beta cells and prevent people from developing T1D to begin with.
• Elad Sintov, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Sintov is producing beta cells from stem cells. Now he is trying to figure out ways to genetically modify those cells so that a transplant recipient’s immune system will not notice them and mount an attack.

Please join us for an inside look, as we present the eighth video in our Inside the Lab series. Find out how a few key up-and-coming T1D researchers are using JDRF support to push forward a few key lines of research.

If you haven’t seen the other featured videos in this series already, don’t miss out. See how scientists are collaborating to expedite the process of finding cures and improving lives:

• Boston: A Global Leader of Type 1 Diabetes Researchis an overview of the leading scientists and institutions for T1D investigations in Boston and JDRF’s role in shaping and supporting this research.
• Beta Cell Replacement Research in Bostonlooks at the collaborations and skills that researchers in Boston are using to tackle the complex task of replacing beta cells in people with T1D.
• Beta Cell Regeneration Research in Bostonasks: Can we internally regenerate and protect existing beta cells, and therefore find cures for T1D?
• Prevention Research in Bostonshows experts that are working to delay T1D, or stop it before it starts.
• Immune Therapy Research in Bostonasks: Can we redirect the body’s immune response to find cures for T1D?
• Kidney Complications Research in Bostonlooks at how we are working to prevent the predictable: kidney disease for 1 in 4 people who have T1D.
• Eye Complications Research in Boston shows how we can used improved technology and data processing to more quickly determine solutions for diabetic eye disease.

Funding young scientists is one of JDRF’s best opportunities to increase our knowledge of the disease and find cures for T1D. Please consider donating today, and we’ll turn type 1 into type none, with your support.