By DoM Communications | Date published: October 1, 2026
Kent Lab Awarded Five-Year R01 Grant
Sally Kent, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, in collaboration with the laboratory of Teresa DiLorenzo, PhD, principal investigator at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, received a five-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
In their project titled “The HLA Class I Immunopeptidome of Primary Islets in Health and Disease,” Dr. Kent and her colleagues will identify molecules from pancreatic islets that are presented to CD8+ T cells by two HLA class I variants associated with increased risk for type 1 diabetes. Because CD8 + T cells can mistakenly target and kill insulin-producing beta cells, Dr. Kent and her lab will work to determine whether T cells recognize and respond to newly identified targets. The findings could provide new insight into how type 1 diabetes develops and help researchers better understand the potential of CD8+ T cells as targets for future immune therapies and as biomarkers of disease.