The research interest of Dr Lernmark in type 1 diabetes dates back to his first report on islet cell surface antibodies (1978), the first islet autoantigen in 1981, the genetic association with HLA-DQ in 1984, the cloning of the human islet GAD65 in 1991, the development of autoantibody assays using cloned autoantigens labeled by in vitro transcription translation in 1992 as well as the recent translational activities of GAD65-vaccination to prevent type 1 diabetes in 2009.