I am interested in fundamental biology, especially as it relates to the endocrine role of pancreatic islets of Langerhans in maintaining glucose homeostasis. This interest extends to autoimmunity directed against pancreatic beta cells within the islets of Langerhans and the development of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), a chronic autoimmune disease occurring in childhood. Presently, I am engaged in research that aims to understand the molecular events initiating autoimmunity and beta cell destruction in T1D. I believe that discovering the cause of autoimmunity is a vital prerequisite to finding a cure for T1D and indeed multiple related autoimmune diseases.

Key Achievements

2020-2023 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation PhD Top-Up Scholarship

2019-2023 University of Sydney Postgraduate Award

2022 Australian Diabetes Society Pincus Taft Young Investigator Award

2022 Bioscientifica Trust General Grant

2016 Ivan T. Oliver Vacation Scholarship in Biochemistry

Selected publications

Jevon D, Cottle L, Hallahan N, Harwood R, Samra JS, Gill AJ, Loudovaris T, Thomas HE, Thorn P.
Capillary contact points determine beta cell polarity, control secretion and are disrupted in the db/dbmouse model of diabetes.

Diabetologia. 2024 May 30:1-5.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-024-06180-x

Jevon D, Deng K, Hallahan N, Kumar K, Tong J, Gan WJ, Tran C, Bilek M, Thorn P.
Local activation of focal adhesion kinase orchestrates the positioning of presynaptic scaffold proteins and Ca2+ signalling to control glucose-dependent insulin secretion.
Elife. 2022 May 13;11:e76262.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76262

Yau B, Naghiloo S, Diaz-Vegas A, Carr AV, Van Gerwen J, Needham EJ, Jevon D, Chen SY, Hoehn KL, Brandon AE, Macia L.
Proteomic pathways to metabolic disease and type 2 diabetes in the pancreatic islet.
IScience. 2021 Oct 22;24(10).
https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.isci.2021.103099

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=7-LsgxUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AOAOcb0WxZXvQo3YtxBA2WQp2t-mJIQvXfvbUzaKw8n85sBJI7DDAkcKbWEjHFzSLHjUAgphMjPT9GjtOvHKCPMg 

Human Immunology

The Human Immunology Laboratory has two related goals: 1) to determine how and why the immune system turns against insulin-producing cells, leading to type 1 diabetes, and 2) to develop ways to measure and prevent the disease-causing immune response.

Lab head: Associate Professor Stuart Mannering

View lab profile