Join our keynote speaker, Hannah Pizzato, as she shares about overcoming barriers to beta cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes.
Replacing insulin-producing beta cells lost to autoimmune destruction represents a natural approach to curing the millions of type 1 diabetics worldwide. However, significant barriers have limited the clinical viability of beta cell transplants, including a shortage of donor cells to meet the demand and the lifelong requirement of immunosuppressive therapy to prevent transplant rejection. This talk will highlight a few emerging strategies to overcome these challenges, with specific emphasis on Pizzato’s work engineering pluripotent stem cells to avoid immune rejection for use in beta cell replacement therapy.
Hannah Pizzato, PhD, is a principal scientist at the Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies (CAMI) at the University of Arizona.
Pizzato’s research centers on engineering human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to be hypoimmunogenic, eliminating the need for immunosuppressive therapy upon transplantation of hPSC-derived cells. These modified hPSCs can subsequently be differentiated into insulin-producing beta cells as an ‘off-the-shelf’ therapeutic approach to curing type 1 diabetes.
Pizzato received her bachelor’s in biochemistry from Purdue University and her doctorate in immunology from Washington University in St. Louis. She moved to the University of Arizona in 2017, where she later performed her postdoctoral work before joining CAMI in 2024.
On a personal note, Pizzato was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of four, which ignited her interest in science and drives her passion for contributing to the development of a cure.
