"Type 1 diabetes is particularly tragic because it usually starts in childhood and its effects worsen with time. It can lead to organ damage, blindness and other terrible side effects.  That's why I focus so heavily on this disease.  I'm trained as a physician and I saw what it can do." - Matthias von Herrath, M.D.

Dr. von Herrath serves as Director of the Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research in addition to being a full Member in the Division of Developmental Immunology. Dr. von Herrath's research focuses on strategies to prevent type 1 diabetes through the induction of regulatory T cells.

Dr. von Herrath wrote his thesis in the field of Biochemistry and then received his M.D. in Medicine from the Freiburg Medical School in Freiburg, Germany in 1988. He did his residency work at the Freiburg Medical Center in the Internal Medicine/Immunology department and at the Diakonic Hospital's Intensive Care Unit in Freiburg. For his postdoctoral work, Dr. von Herrath went to The Scripps Research Institute and worked in its Neuropharmacology and Immunology departments.

Dr. von Herrath is an editor and reviewer for numerous publications as well as being a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and a Council Member for the International Diabetes Society. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He is the recipient of the 2006 Grotzky Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International and the 2007-2012 Scholar Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Matthias von Herrath, M.D., and his team study why the immune system sometimes attacks the body's own cells. They focus on type 1 diabetes, a disease caused by the immune system attacking the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, and on diseases caused by viral infections. Their goal is to develop and evaluate new treatments and therapies for these conditions, in particular immune-based interventions.

The laboratory has found that stimulating the immune system with beta cell proteins via DNA vaccines results in a beneficial, or regulatory, immune response that can prevent type 1 diabetes. The DNA vaccines are currently being developed for the clinic in collaboration with BayHill therapeutics.

In addition, Dr. von Herrath's team is studying how introducing immune response modifiers, such as small molecules named "cytokines" or certain antibodies, get the immune system back on track, stopping it from attacking the body's own cells. His laboratory is collaborating with a major diabetes consortium in the United States and Australia, supported in part by the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Medical Research Council in Australia, on developing this strategy. This approach has proved effective in animals in an advanced stage of type 1 diabetes, and the hope is that this will translate to human patients.

Viral infections and the diseases they cause can be modulated through similar pathways. In parallel to the approach followed by the laboratory for type 1 diabetes, the focus is on developing treatments that will be effective after the infection has occurred.

To read more about Dr. von Herrath's work visit the Type 1 Diabetes Center. 

Adenovirus E3 MHC inhibitory genes but not TNF/Fas apoptotic inhibitory genes expressed in beta cells prevent autoimmune diabetes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009

The role of the activating receptor NKG2D in autoimmunity. Mol Immunol. 2009 

Immunotherapy for the prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes: optimizing the path from bench to bedside. Diabetes Care. 2009 

Remodeling rodent models to mimic human type 1 diabetes. Eur J Immunol. 2009 

Histopathology of type 1 diabetes: old paradigms and new insights. Rev Diabet Stud. 2009 

Mouse models for type 1 diabetes. Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models. 2009

Immunoregulatory mechanisms triggered by viral infections protect from type 1 diabetes in mice. J Clin Invest. 2009 

Diabetes: A virus-gene collaboration. Nature. 2009 

Interleukin-21 is required for the development of type 1 diabetes in NOD mice. Diabetes. 2009 

NKT cell-plasmacytoid dendritic cell cooperation via OX40 controls viral infection in a tissue-specific manner. Immunity. 2009 

CD103 is dispensable for anti-viral immunity and autoimmunity in a mouse model of virally-induced autoimmune diabetes. J Autoimmun. 2009

No significant CTL cross-priming by dendritic cell-derived exosomes during murine lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection. J Immunol. 2009 

How can we improve the translational landscape for a faster cure of type 1 diabetes? J Clin Invest. 2009

Animal models of human type 1 diabetes. Nat Immunol. 2009 

Can we learn from viruses how to prevent type 1 diabetes?: the role of viral infections in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and the development of novel combination therapies. Diabetes. 2009 

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