Marcin Ł. Pękalski

The paper identifies a genetic variant that affects transcription factor binding and reduces type 1 diabetes risk in infants by altering thymic gene expression.

The paper investigates how HLA-DQβ157 polymorphism influences T cell receptor selection and links it to microbial antigens that mimic insulin, contributing to type 1 diabetes pathogenesis.

The paper shows that HLA class II haplotypes influence T1D risk by selecting for CD4+ T cell receptors with negatively charged CDR3β sequences that bind insulin, and demonstrates this in peripheral and islet T cells.