Postdoc researcher
Postdoc R.M. van Tienhoven
CURRICULUM VITAE:
I started studying T1D during my bachelor’s and master’s degree Biomedical Sciences at Groningen University. In 2018, I moved to Los Angeles for my doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Bart Roep. Here I investigated the expression of neoantigens in human islets and revisited the role of the insulin gene in T1D. We discovered that insulin gene expression is not restricted to beta cells and describe that SNPs in the insulin gene correlate with the occurrence of diabetic complications in T1D patients. Furthermore, we suggest a provoking role for beta cells in the development in T1D and set the first steps to define a cure for T1D. In 2023, I joined the Zaldumbide lab at the Cell and Chemical Biology department to continue researching T1D.
RESEARCH:
Type 1 diabetes was thought to be the fault of the immune system, but the beta cell participates in its own demise by provoking the immune system to attack. The aim of our research is to understand how beta cells provoke the immune system so that we can intervene in these processes. Recently, a link was made between metabolic stress and T1D incidence. We now try to understand how metabolic stress can give rise to autoimmunity by studying the mitochondria of beta cell. Mitochondrial DNA mutations and alternative translation sites of the mito-ribosome may lead to the formation of epitopes that are targeted by autoimmunity.
