Congratulations to Jessie Barra, Ph.D., on receiving an NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)! Learn more about Jessie and her research below.
“My K99/R00 project, ‘Interrogating Selection of Autoreactive T Cells Using Isogenic Human Thymic Organoids,’ dives into one of the biggest unanswered questions in type 1 diabetes: why do autoreactive immune cells that should be “screened out” during development instead go on to attack insulin-producing beta cells later in life? Using stem cell-derived human thymic organoids, I seek to build in vitro and in vivo systems that will reveal the mechanisms that drive developing autoreactive T cell toward different cell fates: either elimination, redirection into a protective regulatory T cell, or thymic escape that allow it to later contribute to beta cell destruction. This award gives me the support to take this work from a promising idea into an independent research program, and to start asking these questions in human cells in ways that just have not been possible before.
At its core, this work is about understanding why T1D happens in the first place, not just managing it after the fact. My hope is that these insights point us toward new ways to selectively remove or redirect harmful autoreactive T cells, and even toward strategies for generating regulatory T cell populations that could protect beta cells long-term. This is the kind of foundational science I believe can move us closer to therapies that go beyond insulin and toward real, lasting protection for people prone to or living with T1D.
I am deeply grateful to my mentor, Dr. Holger Russ, the UFDI, and my collaborators for their support of both my science and my career, and I am excited to keep pushing this work forward.”
