HIRN DATA SCHOLAR AWARD RECIPIENTS | | |
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the HIRN Data Scholars
'Leveraging multi-modal human Islet research Network Knowledge (LINK)' competition. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Matthew Ishahak and Dr. Liu Wang on their LINK awards. Their selection recognizes outstanding contributions to advancing multi-modal human islet research and exemplifies the innovative spirit of the HIRN LINK initiative.
The next application deadline for the HIRN Data Scholars Awards is November 15, 2025. Learn more HERE.
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Matthew Ishahak, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Ishahak received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His research focuses on developing in vitro models of human diseases using engineered organoids and applying state-of-the-art sequencing technologies to investigate mechanisms of disease progression.
Project: “Inferring and Perturbing Gene Regulatory Networks During Diabetes Progression”
Summary:
This project is to improve our understanding of how diabetes disrupts gene regulatory networks in pancreatic islets. By integrating single cell transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility data from healthy and diabetic patients, we will be able to define cell-state-specific gene regulatory networks for each pancreatic islet cell type and perform simulated genetic perturbation experiments to uncover transcription factors that drive diabetes progression. This work will result in new computa -tional approaches utilizing patient data to elucidate the pathogenesis of islet dysfunction in diabetes.
Dr. Ishahak will join the Pancreas Knowledgebase Program (PanKbase).
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Liu Wang, PhD,
Mayo Clinic in Arizona
Dr. Wang is a Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. His research focuses on creating novel models to study diabetes and metabolism and to identify therapeutic targets in metabolic diseases. Dr. Wang studies the fundamental transcriptional and epigenetic dysregulation of beta cells that drives the pathogenesis of diabetes.
Project: “Multi-omics Integrative Analyses of Human Islets in Type 1 Diabetes”
Summary:
This project aims to identify type 1 diabetes-associated SNPs within cell type specific chromatin regions of human islet cells. By integrating GWAS with scATAC-seq, scRNA-seq, and single-cell multiomic data, and applying computational approaches such as transcription factor motif analysis and chromatin footprinting, we will uncover functionally relevant variants that alter transcriptional regulation. These findings will provide new insights into the cis-regulatory architecture of islet cells and reveal mechanisms by which noncoding variants contribute to T1D pathogenesis.
Dr. Wang will join the Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS).
| | We are excited to announce six recently announced new awards for the HIRN CBDS RFA Six new awards were announced for the HIRN Consortium on Beta Cell Death and Survival (CBDS) (RFA-DK-23-007). Below you will find details on the selected research projects, Principal Investigators (PIs), and accompanying images. We look forward to welcoming these groups into the network. | | |
The Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) announces new funding initiatives to support the use of existing HIRN datasets and resources to explore unique and innovative hypotheses designed to accelerate breakthroughs and advances in type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. The HIRN Data Scholars Award (DSA) Program provides:
- Funding for data-science centered projects submitted via a streamlined process to the HIRN Human Islet Research Enhancement Center (HIREC). Projects will use existing datasets from HIRN and related T1D partner programs and/or resources to design studies or create resources that are responsive to specific initiatives in this announcement.
- Opportunities to collaborate with HIRN investigators and programs and efficiently exchange ideas and resources to accelerate innovation in T1D research.
Depending on the initiative (there are currently two opportunities), awardees will receive either $50,000 or $1,000. Learn more HERE.
KEY DATES
Application Due Date: November 1, 2025
Scientific Review: December 2025
Start Date: February 2026
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RFA-DK-26-009: New Investigator Gateway Awards for Collaborative T1D Research (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
The New Investigator Gateway Award in T1D Research is designed to support a robust pipeline of innovative projects and talented new investigators in T1D research. Embedding awardees within an established scientific framework in each of these consortia will provide unique opportunities for New and Early Stage Investigators to increase their understanding of key questions in the field, to network, and to establish unique and potentially long-lasting collaborations that will propel their careers forward. Bringing New and Early Stage Investigators into existing collaborative research networks also will benefit the networks by infusing novel ideas and perspectives. (Foreign applications not allowed.)
Application due date:
| | OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES | | |
Join the NOURISH Autoimmunity Challenge integrating nutrition in autoimmune research
The NOURISH (Nutrition for OUR Immune System Health): Autoimmunity Challenge is a crowdsourcing competition focused on generating a cadre of innovative ideas on how to best integrate diet and nutrition studies into autoimmune disease research with a focus on identifying dietary interventions that are feasible, testable, scalable, and will have broad impact across the broad autoimmune disease portfolio. With up to $150,000 in total prizes, the NIH is seeking ideas for new ways of studying diet and nutrition in autoimmune disease research, including the role diet plays in the autoimmune prodrome and autoimmune disease inception, how diet and nutrition contribute to autoimmune disease progression and flares, and the role that diet may play in symptom management.
- The challenge aims to fill a gap in how nutrition is studied in relation to autoimmune onset, progression, and symptom management — an area that remains underexplored.
- It is open to a broad set of contributors: researchers, clinicians, patients, advocacy groups, and interdisciplinary teams.
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The total prize pool is up to $150,000, with potentially 15 awards of $10,000 each.
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Deadline December 4, 2025; winners announced March 2026.
Learn more HERE
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Immune Profiling Challenge
In this competition, you’ll develop machine learning models to simultaneously perform two tasks: (a) predict the immune state (e.g. disease, healthy) of individuals based on so-called adaptive immune repertoires (sets of protein sequences), and (b) identify immune state-associated receptor sequences (those that explain immune state in the first task). The goal is to expedite ML-based solutions for immunodiagnostics and therapeutics discovery.
The competition is open to everyone, and will be hosted on the popular Kaggle platform. All you need to do is create a Kaggle account, accept the competition rules, and start coding! The competition will be live on November 5, 2025. Click HERE for more information.
Key Dates:
- November 05, 2025 - Start Date.
- November 19, 2025 - Entry Deadline.
- November 19, 2025 - Team Merger Deadline.
- December 17, 2025 - Final Submission Deadline.
Prizes:
- 1st Place - $ 5,000
- 2nd Place - $ 3,000
- 3rd Place - $ 2,000
Eligibility: To win the prize money, a prerequisite is that the participants make their code open-source.
Sponsorship: Competition prizes are kindly sponsored by The Research Council of Norway.
| | 2025 RACHMIEL LEVINE-ARTHUR RIGGS DIABETES RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM | | |
Register today to attend the 2025 Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium which will be held in Pasadena, California from November 14-17, 2025. Abstract authors are eligible for travel stipends, poster session presentation, and participation in the general program.
For more information, scan the QR code below or learn more HERE.
| | Below is a summary of the most recent job postings by category (Faculty, Research Staff/Admin, Postdoc). Visit the HIRN Website for a full listing of job opportunities. | | |
Professor or Assistant Professor
A position as senior researcher combined with a professorship in molecular mechanisms of type 1 diabetes at the Bartholin Institute, Department of Pathology, Centre for Diagnostics, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital. The position is combined with a position as professor or associate professor with special focus on translational type 1 diabetes research at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Interested applicants should submit a CV, a list of publications, and a research plan outlining how they envision contributing to the Bartholin Institute. Please send all materials to Anders Lund.
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Scientist Position
The You/Mallone/Scharfmann joint Laboratory is opening a position for an early/intermediate career scientist wishing to establish an independent research group. The joint Laboratory is looking for an early/intermediate-career investigators with an attractive scientific track record and a project interfacing with the of their joint Laboratory, i.e. immune-endocrine pancreas cross-talks in diabetes. The newly recruited Research Group Leader will benefit from the support of the joint Laboratory and their research infrastructure, appropriate laboratory space and an initial startup package. She/he is expected to compete for national and international research funding and yearly calls for permanent research positions. Applicants should send a CV with publication list and a short 1-2-page description of the research project to Dr. Roberto Mallone.
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Principal Investigator
The Leuven Diabetes Lab is seeking an ambitious Principal Investigator with a strong background in immunology or beta-cell biology to join, and ultimately take over, leadership of the lab, currently headed by Prof. Chantal Mathieu and managed by Dr. Conny Gysemans. The lab’s mission is to advance the understanding and treatment of type 1 diabetes through innovative research, spanning beta-cell preservation, immune modulation, and translational approaches.
As part of this position, candidates may be eligible for enhanced ERC funding, recently expanded to support top global researchers relocating to Europe, making this a unique opportunity for outstanding scientists from the US or other countries to establish a high-impact research program in a world-class environment. Join us in shaping the future of type 1 diabetes research and working toward a world without type 1 diabetes. Interested candidates should send a CV and brief description of research interests to Dr. Chantal Mathieu and Dr. Conny Gysemans.
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Research Associate II
The laboratory of Dr. Melanie Shapiro at City of Hope is seeking a Research Associate to investigate the genetics and immunology of type 1 diabetes. Current projects include investigating germline genetic variants predicting response to immunotherapies as well as somatic variants in the pancreas and immune cells of organ donors. A master’s or bachelor’s degree and laboratory experience required. Additional experience in immunology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics preferred, but not required. Interested candidates should send a CV and brief description of research interests to
Dr. Melanie Shapiro.
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Postdoctoral Position
The Kaestner lab is looking to fill two fully-funded postdoctoral positions for research projects related to the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP), which investigates the pathogenesis of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Preferred applicants will have: Strong Research and
Development (R&D) skills, Experience with Laboratory Skills and conducting In Vivo experiments, Expertise in islet biology and molecular genetics, Ph.D. in Biology, or a related field, 0-3 years of experience in postdoctoral research. Please send a cover letter and curriculum vitae, including the names of three references, to: Dr. Klaus Kaestner.
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Postdoctoral Position
Maike Sander at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin is seeking a highly motivated and talented Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) to join the group of Prof. This position offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to a deeper understanding of how transcription factors shape beta-cell maturation by applying state-of-the-art multi-omic approaches in an international, vibrant, and collaborative research environment. The Sander lab combines single-cell genomics, human stem cell models, and bioengineering approaches to investigate transcriptional and cell–cell signaling mechanisms underlying type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Please send a cover letter and curriculum vitae, including the names of three references, to: Dr. Maike Sander.
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Postdoctoral Position
The Dr. Jeffrey Millman laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine is seeking a motivated postdoctoral researcher to join the team. This researcher will lead an exciting new project focused on vascularized stem cell-derived islets for diabetes disease modeling and cell replacement therapy. Qualified candidates are encouraged to email Dr. Millman with their CV and cover letter.
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Postdoctoral Position
The Austrian Academy of Sciences is offering fellowships to outstanding postdoctoral researchers currently working at U.S. universities or non-university research institutions who are interested in relocating their research to leading institutions in Austria.
A total of 25 fellowships is available for Austrian universities and non-university research institutions recognized for their research excellence. Candidates must be nominated by the host institution in Austria.
With the nomination, the host institution commits to:
- Covering 25% of the fellowship cost (equivalent to EUR 125,000)
- Employing the fellow for the full duration of the fellowship
Interested candidates should send a CV and a brief description of their research interests to Dr. Marjan Slak Rupnik.
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