Allogeneic
Cells or tissue from another person; scalable, but potentially recognized as foreign.
Reference
Glossary
Definitions of terms used throughout the course.
Alloimmunity
An immune response against genetically different cells from another person.
Antigen
A molecular feature that immune receptors can recognize.
Autoantibody
An antibody against a self-associated target; in T1D, a marker of early autoimmune disease.
Autoimmunity
Immune attack against the body’s own cells or molecules.
Autologous
Cells derived from and returned to the same person.
Beta cell
An islet endocrine cell that senses glucose and secretes insulin.
C-peptide
A peptide released with endogenous insulin and used to measure a patient’s or graft’s secretion.
Differentiation
The process by which a cell acquires a specialized identity and function.
Encapsulation
Enclosing therapeutic cells in a semipermeable material to permit exchange while limiting immune access.
Engraftment
Establishment and survival of transplanted cells in the recipient.
Ex vivo
Outside the body; ex vivo editing modifies cultured cells before transplantation.
Functional cure
Clinically meaningful endogenous insulin production, even if another chronic treatment remains.
HLA
Molecules that present protein fragments to T cells and strongly shape transplant matching.
Hypoimmune
Engineered to reduce immune recognition—not literally invisible to every immune pathway.
Immunosuppression
Treatment that broadly reduces immune activity to prevent rejection or control disease.
Insulin independence
Maintaining glycemic control without external insulin during a defined observation period.
Islet
A vascularized endocrine micro-organ containing beta, alpha, delta, and other cell types.
iPSC
Induced pluripotent stem cell: a mature cell reprogrammed to a pluripotent state.
Natural killer cell
An innate immune cell that can attack stressed cells, including those with unusually low HLA class I.
Pluripotent
Able to self-renew and differentiate into nearly all adult cell types.
Potency assay
A test intended to predict whether a biological product performs its therapeutic function.
Regulatory T cell
A T-cell subset that restrains immune responses and supports tolerance.
Tolerance
An immune state in which a target is not attacked while other immune responses remain available.