Research Spotlight: Huriya Beyan, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Huriya Beyan obtained her first degree in Immunology from Kings College London in 1999, before obtaining a scholarship from the Joint Research Board of St Bartholomew’s Hospital London to undertake a PhD programme to study the ‘Role of monocytes in type 1 diabetes’. Dr Beyan has subsequently led a programme at the Blizard Institute, London to study monocytes from peripheral blood in autoimmune diabetes using epigenetics (DNA methylation), and gene expression in identical twins discordant for the disease and in different forms of autoimmune diabetes (childhood-onset, adult-onset type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and latent autoimmune diabetes of adults (LADA)). These studies were supported by grants to Professor David Leslie: 1) EU BioMed project (Grant No QLG1-CT-2002-01886) to study LADA; 2) EU (Human Epigenome Project), BBSRC and JDRFI grants to study epigenetics in twins. 

Her studies have taken her to work in the laboratories of Professor Mark Peakman (London), Professor John Todd (Cambrdige) and Professor Hemmo Drexhage (Rotterdam).  Dr Beyan is a recent recipient of the Albert Renold Fellowship from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) as part of a JDRF/nPOD grant.  The proposed programme involves the collaboration of Departments at the University of Florida and her own Institute in London which have a mutual interest in the origin of T1DM, specifically in the epigenetics of immune effector cells and disease-relevant tissue. This collaborative effort will allow us to capitalize on our existing synergies, including the availability of human specimens from the JDRF nPOD, our collection of thymuses, the interests of Professor Pugliese’s lab and our collective expertise in diabetes research and epigenetics. Dr Beyan will present results published in Plos Genetics and Diabetes on monocytes in autoimmune diabetes.