Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) - On Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS)

January 2023 Council

Lead Division/Office

DEM

Point(s) of Contact

Olivier Blondel

Executive Summary

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will solicit new applications to the Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS) that propose to use human pancreatic cells and tissues for the discovery of defective signaling or processing pathways that contribute to the asymptomatic phase of T1D, the discovery of early biomarkers of T1D pathogenesis, and/or the identification of therapeutic targets for the development of preventative or early treatment strategies. CBDS is part of the Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) and this initiative would represent the second renewal of the CBDS effort (CBDS 3.0). In the past seven years, the consortium has made significant progress toward its long-term goal of better understanding the triggers of T1D initiation in humans. Renewed support is needed to better understand this (still) understudied phase of human T1D with the long-term goal of developing innovative strategies for protecting the residual beta cell mass in T1D patients as early as possible in the disease process and preventing the progression to autoimmunity in at-risk individuals.