Overview

The Hagopian Lab focuses their research on strategies in immunology and molecular biology to predict and prevent type 1 diabetes before clinical disease onset. Their studies include screening more than 140,000 newborns in Washington State to determine environmental factors that trigger diabetes in those with genetic risk. With these data as a foundation, the Hagopian Lab develops and implements cost-effective strategies for population-based pediatric screening to predict preclinical diabetes. William Hagopian, MD, PhD, has developed low-cost/high-accuracy islet antibody tests, as well as scoring system for genetic risk. Together, these innovations have great potential to decrease costs to patients when translated to public health settings and mainstream medical care. 

Also, the Hagopian Lab joins six other laboratories worldwide in the TEDDY Study, “The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young.” This groundbreaking collaboration follows 8,000 children with high genetic risk for type 1 diabetes until the age of 15. It has identified many factors, from vitamins, to probiotics, to triggering viruses such as enterovirus B, which significantly affect the autoimmunity leading to clinical type 1 diabetes. TEDDY and others have also demonstrated the great success of advance prediction to prevent ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal complication affecting most children at type 1 diabetes onset. 

Dr. Hagopian’s team also pursues collaborative clinical trials of low-toxicity immune therapies to interrupt the autoimmune response that kills insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells. He was instrumental in helping develop the anti-CD3 drug teplizumab, now FDA approved for prediabetes. In addition to their potential to prevent diabetes before blood sugar becomes elevated, these therapies may help newly diagnosed patients better tolerate transplant of islet cells made in the laboratory and being commercially developed by several companies.