Cell Biology
Dr. Antonello Pileggi will share the results of a study showing that the anterior chamber of the eye provides researchers with a unique platform to gain insights into the mechanisms involved in the cellular progression of autoimmunity. The research builds on our groundbreaking work with the Living Window - a revolutionary technique that allows scientists to view, in real time through the cornea of a mouse, how transplanted insulin-producing cells function when they are inside a living organism. While researchers set out to use the living window to study islet cell biology and to monitor transplanted tissue, the technology is now allowing them to study immune cell attack to islet cells during the development of autoimmunity. In initial living window studies, blood sugars normalized after islets were transplanted into the eye. Ongoing DRI research carried on in collaboration with Dr. Per-Olof Berggren’s group and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Dr. Victor Perez of the Bascolm-Palemer Eye Institute is also exploring the eye as a possible clinical site for islet transplantation. Learn more about the work being pursued by this team in the most recent issue of DRIFocus.