Esma S Yolcu
University of Louisville, USA
Title: Engineering bone marrow cells with an immunomodulatory protein for the prevention of graft-vs-host disease
Biography
Biography: Esma S Yolcu
Abstract
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease that impacts millions of people world-wide. Presently, there is no cure for T1D and treatment with exogenous insulin to manage diabetes is ineffective in controlling euglycemia in a substantial population of type 1 diabetics. Transplantation of pancreatic islets as a source of beta cells producing insulin has proven effective in improving metabolic control in type 1 diabetic individuals. However, graft rejection is a major limitation of clinical islet transplantation that is controlled by chronic immunosuppression. Systemic use of immunosuppression is associated with various adverse effects that compromises the life quality of graft recipients. We have been pursuing the development of targeted and localized immunomodulatory approaches as a safe and effective alternative to chronic immunosuppression. In particular, we developed biomaterials based on polyethylene glycol microparticles engineered with immunomodulatory ligands targeting islet destructive pathogenic T effector cells for physical elimination within the graft microenvironment. The application of this novel concept to the induction of tolerance to islet allografts as a cure for T1D will be discussed.