Stock image: Artwork of lymphocytes. (Source: Getty Images.)
Sarah Crome, a scientist at UHN’s Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and Ajmera Transplant Centre, is working on an innovation supported by Medicine by Design’s Pivotal Experiment Fund that could have an impact on type 1 diabetes as well as the success of organ transplants.
Crome, who is also part of a Medicine by Design team project led by Sunnybrook Research Institute’s Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, is testing a novel cell therapy using a subset of immune cells with anti-inflammatory properties. Crome is working towards harnessing a regulatory population of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), in tolerance-promoting immune cell therapies due to their unique properties.
“A more specific and efficient therapy that dampens harmful immune responses in type 1 diabetes and transplantation would mean improved quality of life and better long-term outcomes,” says Crome.
Sarah Crome (Photo by Neil Ta.)
Her research is focused on understanding mechanisms of immune tolerance and identifying cells and molecules that control whether the immune system attacks something or not.
Crome, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Immunology at U of T, joined UHN and the U of T faculty in a recruitment supported by Medicine by Design.
“Through the Pivotal Experiment Fund and other programs, Medicine by Design has helped me bridge fundamental immunology research with translational interest and advance a potential new immune cell therapy,” Crome says.
Back to “Five ways Medicine by Design is transforming the treatment of type 1 diabetes.”
