Curiosity is the cure: what if we could end type 1 diabetes | Dr. Leonardo Ferriera | TEDxCharleston

An off-the-shelf combination therapy for type 1 diabetes consisting of stem cell-derived insulin-producing beta cells with a bait and anti-inflammatory immune cells with an artificial receptor specific for that bait to exclusively protect the beta cells from immune destruction in patients. My goal is to control how the immune system recognizes self and non-self to establish immune tolerance in type 1 diabetes. I am originally from Portugal, where I obtained a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and first fell in love with research at the University of Coimbra. As a PhD student at Harvard University, I was the first to report the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in primary human cells, editing genes in blood stem cells and T cells, and unveiled a gene regulatory mechanism involved in the maintenance of immune tolerance during pregnancy. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Francisco, I modified immunosuppressive human regulatory T cells with an artificial receptor to direct them to human pancreatic islet transplants. As an assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, my laboratory designs and develops genetically engineered immune cells as living therapeutics to treat autoimmune disease. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx