Benjamin King PhD

Benjamin King completed his PhD in the field of cancer immunotherapy, working with cytotoxic T cells, before moving to Sweden and starting to work with the complement system. He is currently studying novel roles of complement proteins, with a focus on C3 and CD59 and how they affect cellular function in various systems, with a particular focus on the pancreatic islet. In particular, see that expression of CD59 and C3 are altered in islets from human donors with diabetes, compared to healthy donors. C3 appears to be cytoprotective and keeps beta cells alive, whilst intracellular isoforms of CD59 are directly involved in insulin secretion. By better understanding the mechanism of function of both of these proteins, hope to develop potential future treatments for diabetes.