JDRF, the leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization, together with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), announce the appointment of Qizhi Tang, Ph.D., professor of surgery and director of the UCSF Transplantation Research Laboratory, as the new co-director of the JDRF Center of Excellence in Northern California. In her new role, Dr. Tang will co-lead the institution with Seung Kim, M.D., Ph.D., as the center works to deliver next-generation therapies and first-generation cures for T1D.
“Dr. Tang has been a key leader at the JDRF Center of Excellence in Northern California since its inception,” said Esther Latres, JDRF assistant vice president of research. “Her experience in immunology, clinical transplantation, and beta cell replacement therapy will be an added asset as the center expands. The combined leadership of Dr. Tang and Dr. Kim will undoubtedly accelerate research toward developing new approaches to generate highly functional islets and protect them from the immune system after transplantation.”
Dr. Tang joined the UCSF faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor of pathology and at the Diabetes Center, where she researched mechanisms of immune tolerance in mouse models of T1D. In 2007 Dr. Tang was appointed the director of the UCSF Transplantation Research Laboratory and joined the transplantation division in the Department of Surgery to lead basic and translational research in transplant immunology. In that role, she has built cross-disciplinary collaborative teams to rapidly translate laboratory discoveries into early-phase clinical trials.
“Dr. Tang is an outstanding, highly collaborative scientist and leader of scientific programs, and we are privileged to have her assume this important role,” said Dr. Seung Kim, M.D., Ph.D., JDRF Center of Excellence in Northern California co-director. “Her focus on type 1 diabetes immune therapeutics and pathogenesis have been framed by productive studies, often at multiple institutions, and perfectly align with her leadership in the Center of Excellence. I am pleased to co-direct and collaborate with her.”
“A confluence of knowledge and technology makes this an exciting time for T1D research,” said Dr. Qizhi Tang. “The support of the JDRF Center of Excellence allows us to recruit talents to translate these research advances into therapies for type 1 diabetes. I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this effort.”
The JDRF Center of Excellence in Northern California is a cure accelerator and high-impact partnership combining the scientific expertise of Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, within the collaborative structure and support that are hallmarks of JDRF. Investigators at the Center will seek to better understand and target the interactions between the immune system and beta cells, identify new strategies to protect these cells after transplantation, and deliver advanced stem cell-based cures for T1D.
Dr. Tang’s tenure as co-director of the Center of Excellence begins immediately, taking over for Dr. Matthias Hebrok, who has been appointed as founding chair of the Center for Organoid Systems and Tissue Engineering (COS) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Director of the new Institute for Diabetes and Organoid Technology (IDOT) at the Helmholtz Center, Germany.
“I have enjoyed being at UCSF for more than 22 years, and it has been a privilege to help build and co-direct the JDRF Center of Excellence in Northern California with the clear intent of finding new ways to treat patients living with type 1 diabetes,” said Dr. Hebrok.
Dr. Hebrok’s current research will continue under the leadership of Audrey Parent, Ph. D. assistant adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Parent has made seminal contributions to understanding how to generate and modify stem cell-derived beta cells to blunt the effects of the immune system.
Source: JDRF
