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SEATTLE – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has named Gerald T. Nepom, MD, PhD, as the director of the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), one of the largest government-funded clinical research networks in the country working to establish new treatments for diseases of the immune system. Dr. Nepom is presently the director of Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) and will maintain both positions providing scientific oversight and management. The appointment includes a $1 million management contract for BRI in 2010. This confirms BRI’s international leadership role in immunology research.

Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) director and founder, Jeffrey A. Bluestone has accepted the position of Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California, San Francisco, pending approval by the UC Regents.

The Immune Tolerance Network's (ITN's) START research trial for new-onset type 1 diabetes has received the approval of its Data Safety and Monitoring Board to accept patients aged 12-18 years into the study. The decision was made after a review of safety data from the initial group of 10 adult subjects enrolled into the study. The trial is now open to individuals between the ages of 12-35 who have been diagnosed with new-onset type 1 diabetes within the past 3 months. The START trial is being conducted under the direction of principal investigator Dr. Stephen Gitelman at the University of California, San Francisco and at 9 other research centers in the US

Results of the Immune Tolerance Network's (ITN's) study of a novel vaccine for treatment of new onset type 1 diabetes has been published in the Journal of Autoimmunity. Led by Joslin Diabetes Clinic's Tihamer Orban, the study determined that a vaccine comprised of insulin B-chain in incomplete Freund's adjuvant was generally safe and well-tolerated. Importantly, for up to two years following treatment, in peripheral blood from subjects receiving this vaccine, insulin-B-chain-specific CD4+ T cells could be detected, that showed phenotypic and functional characteristics of regulatory cells.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is seeking ‘Proposal Outlines’ for novel clinical trials designed to induce immune tolerance in psoriasis and other autoimmune skin disorders, including those mediated by autoantibodies such as pemphigus and pemphigoid.

Three abstracts from Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) studies are being presented at this year's American Transplant Congress in Boston, MA, held May 20-June 3, 2009.

The full cohort of 640 children has now been enrolled in the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) LEAP study of peanut allergy. The study is being conducted under the direction of principal investigator Gideon Lack, MD at Evelina Children’s Hospital, part of Guys and St Thomas Hospital in London, UK. The study addresses a growing scientific and public health controversy as to whether children at risk of developing peanut allergy can best prevent the condition by regular consumption of peanut or by avoiding it altogether. Results of the long-term study are expected in 2013.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) has completed enrolling the full cohort of 83 patients in its Autoimmunity-blocking Antibody for Tolerance in type 1 diabetes, or ‘AbATE’ trial.

The ITN protocol for the measurement of Fox-P3-expressing T regulatory (Treg) cells has been published in the March 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cytometry B: Clinical Cytometry.

Summary - The purpose of this EOI is to gather information from the scientific community about novel ideas for tolerogenic immunotherapeutic trials in type 1 diabetes (T1D) under the ITN-JDRF Partnership in Type 1 Diabetes Program. Expressions of interest should be submitted no later than April 13, 2009.