She joined the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Malek in 2002 for her post-doctoral training at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Together with Dr. Thomas Malek, Dr. Bayer has demonstrated that regulatory T cells are critical regulators of self-tolerance and can induce transplantation tolerance to allografts. She has further showed that IL-2/IL-2R interaction is critical for Treg cell development and maintenance.
As reported in the Journal of Immunology, her team established an important function for IL-7R for the development of natural T regulatory cells. This will be an important line of future investigation, as polymorphism in the IL-7Ra gene that likely leads to reduced IL-7R signaling, is an autoimmune susceptibility gene for both multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Bayer’s research focuses on understanding the basic immunobiology of regulatory T cells and applying that knowledge for future clinical translational applications. She hopes that her work will lead to the design of novel therapies for a non-toxic approach to tolerance induction with the ultimate goal of achieving both self-tolerance and transplantation tolerance for the treatment of type 1 diabetes patients.