"We are making great advancements in finding a treatment and/or cure for many autoimmune diseases including: Type 1 Diabetes, Crohn's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and many more autoimmune diseases and conditions that affect the human body."

BREAKTHROUGHS

A Cure for Type 1 Diabetes
Matthias von Herrath, M.D., is edging closer to a goal - a cure for type 1 diabetes. Von Herrath and his fellow researchers' development of a combination therapy is showing significant promise in type 1 diabetes when caught in the early stages. The therapy is headed for human clinical trials in 2008.

RESEARCHERS AND THEIR LABS

Hilde Cheroutre, Ph.D., is at the international forefront of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Celiac disease (CD) research. Cheroutre, a world authority on the immunology of the intestines, focuses on T lymphocytes and how the immune system uses T cells to provide protection at the body's mucosal surfaces - including skin, lungs, mouth and the largest surface of all, the intestines. Cheroutre's findings have significantly advanced scientific understanding of how and why the T cells sometimes fail and allow disease-causing agents to invade the body, or why the T cells sometimes respond in an uncontrolled fashion.

Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., investigates communication between immune system cells and how this communication maintains control of immune responses, or breaks down and result in disease. The communication molecule, tumor-necrosis factor (TNF), has aided Crohn's Disease patients deal with that disorder. Dr. Kronenberg and his laboratory have recently discovered how a TNF-related molecule plays a vital role in the process of inflammatory bowel disease and they are currently investigating other promising molecule candidates.

An immune system "off switch"? Ask Yun-Cai Liu, Ph.D., who is working toward understanding how to turn off an immune system attack. Autoimmune disease is a direct result of the immune system attacking healthy cells. Yun-Cai Liu, Ph.D., has made significant strides in this area by studying molecules, called ubiquitin ligases. His work has pinpointed the Cbl-b ligase molecule as playing a critical role in preventing the development of rheumatoid arthiritis and other autimmune diseases.

Day by day, Matthias von Herrath, M.D., and his lab are edging closer to a goal that has eluded the scientific community for nearly a century. The goal-a cure for type 1 diabetes- took a major step in 2006, with von Herrath's and LIAI researcher Damien Bresson, Ph.D.'s  development of a combination therapy that is showing significant promise against type 1 diabetes, when caught in the early stages. While exciting, it is not the only diabetes approach that interests von Herrath. His lab is a virtual whirlwind of diabetes research activity, with at least eight different projects under way that explore the disease from different angles.

Carl Ware, Ph.D. is working to solve the puzzle of autoimmune disease and is internationally recognized for his work on tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Ware's trailblazing work in the discovery of additional TNF family members, and his illumination of their modes of action, may also have application for righting infectious diseases and cancer.