Project Summary:
A burgeoning and highly impactful area of research is on the process of autophagy, which is the process of clearing and recycling cellular debris. Dr. Lu is focusing on the process of clearing and recycling of cellular debris by the mitochondria, the “powerhouse” of the cell. He found that a protein essential for this process, BNIP3, is upregulated in healthy beta cells, the essential pancreatic cells that are lost in T1D. When beta cells are deficient in BNIP3, they are highly inflamed, which could contribute to bringing an immune response. Dr. Lu is hypothesizing that BNIP3 is downregulated in beta cells in T1D, and may contribute to the immune system targeting of beta cells. He will work to identify the contribution of BNIP3 to T1D. The significance of this project is that since mitochondrial autophagy has not been explored in T1D research before, this line of research opens up a new avenue of therapeutic intervention and prevention for T1D.
