The Silverman Lab investigates early-life modifiable factors influencing the development and function of the immune system and harnesses these factors to prevent autoimmune diabetes (T1D). The lab discovered that the major histocompatibility complex class II E molecule prevents T1D by shaping the intestinal microbiota early in life.
Dr. Silverman studies the fundamental aspects of early-life commensal microbes that influence immune system development and function. He discovered that the MHC-II E molecule prevents type 1 diabetes by shaping the intestinal microbiota early in life.
In the lab of Paula Oliver, PhD, associate professor of Pathology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a group of researchers led by Awo Layman, PhD; Guoping Deng, PhD; and Claire O’Leary, PhD, studied the influential events that transpire when, as Dr. Layman described it to us, a type of immune cell called a regulatory T cell suffers a “loss of identity.”
