Kendra Vehik
University of South Florida, FL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) begins when the immune system attacks the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas, a process called islet autoimmunity. Genetic and environmental factors trigger this attack, which unfolds over years.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
type 1 diabetes
microRNA
miRNA
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Identify early-life plasma microRNA signatures that predict future type 1 diabetes, using longitudinal blood samples from the TEDDY cohort of genetically at-risk children.
- Develop a microRNA-based risk score that predicts different stages of type 1 diabetes progression in TEDDY children.
- Measure how plasma microRNA levels change during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which tracks the insulin response to a sugar drink, and identify changes predictive of beta cell dysfunction.
More about the research
T1D is rising by about 3% per year, and spotting it early in very young children could support prevention. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that do not make proteins but help control genes, including genes for the immune system and for beta cell growth and survival. The team and others have shown that miRNA levels in the blood can serve as markers for diagnosing and predicting disease.
Why it matters
Blood markers that predict type 1 diabetes in the earliest years of life could improve screening of children at high genetic risk. Earlier prediction may support both primary prevention, before autoimmunity starts, and secondary prevention, slowing progression once it has begun. Markers linked to failing beta cells could also help identify which children are moving toward disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Randi Johnson
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Genetics
Build a high-resolution catalog of structural and functional variation in the MHC and KIR immune gene regions by targeted sequencing in more than 2,900 at-risk children, combined with existing array data and algorithms for NK cell and complement activation potential.
Talia Hitt
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Test whether timing an oral glucose tolerance test to match each person's chronotype changes measured glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, in a randomized crossover study of late and non-late chronotype youth aged 17–23.
Taylor Triolo
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Analyze whether baseline markers of beta cell function and stress predict C-peptide preservation during the partial remission, or "honeymoon," period in patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
The school
University of South Florida: 20 labs on PI Pages, $522M a year on research, 305 research doctorates a year.
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