Ake Lernmark, MD, PhD

The research interest of Dr Lernmark in type 1 diabetes dates back to his first report on islet cell surface antibodies (1978), the first islet autoantigen in 1981, the genetic association with HLA-DQ in 1984, the cloning of the human islet GAD65 in 1991, the development of autoantibody assays using cloned autoantigens labeled by in vitro transcription translation in 1992 as well as the recent translational activities of GAD65-vaccination to prevent type 1 diabetes in 2009. The research is focused on studies on autoimmune triggers in the TEDDY study (where he was the Principal Investigator for the Swedish site), prediction of diabetes and celiac disease in the Diabetes Prediction in Skåne (DiPiS) study, prevention of type 1 diabetes by immune tolerance (DIAPREV-IT) using alum-formulated GAD65 and intervention (TrialNet site since 2010).