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Medical College of Wisconsin School of Graduate Studies U1-Research 2F Microscope Lab-Grad-hero
Ashley Ciecko

Ashley Ciecko

Graduate Student

Locations

  • Microbiology & Immunology

Contact Information

Biography

Mentor: Yi-Guang Chen, PhD
Year Entered MCW: 2015
Previous Education: BS, Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2011

Research Interests

Immunogenetics of Type I Diabetes

“I became interested in the immunogenetics of type I diabetes when I joined the laboratory of Dr. Yi-Guang Chen in the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes as a research technologist in 2011. I really enjoyed researching type I diabetes and in 2015 I transitioned my role in Dr. Chen’s lab to graduate student. I am interested in identifying the role of interleukin 27 in the progression of type I diabetes. Type I diabetes is characterized by the T cell mediated destruction of insulin producing pancreatic beta cells. Human genome wide association studies have identified a region on chromosome 16 significantly linked to type I diabetes. Interleukin 27 is proposed to be the causal gene in this region. Interleukin 27 is a recently discovered cytokine with diverse context dependent activity. Elucidating the role of interleukin 27 in type I diabetes could reveal novel therapeutic targets for interrupting disease progression.”

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