Director of the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason | Director of the Immune Tolerance Network | Affiliate Professor, Immunology, University of Washington
Gerald (Jerry) Nepom, M.D. Ph.D., is a leading scientist in the field of translational immunology - taking basic science discoveries in the immune system and developing them for applications in patients with autoimmune disease, particularly type 1 diabetes. His laboratory identified genes that cause susceptibility to T1D, and described functional properties that link them to the destruction of insulin -producing beta cells in the pancreas. This work led to his development of molecular probes that are now widely used to pinpoint immune cells that are responsible for targeting beta cells - a technology that provides a window for viewing a patient’s immune system during therapy. Currently he leads an international network testing novel therapies that are designed to reverse the immune attack on beta cells, studies that have partially preserved insulin production for individuals with T1D in several clinical trials.
