Faculty & Scientific Staff

Dr. Speake serves as director of BRI’s Center for Interventional Immunology and is an Associate Member. Her research uses large-scale immunology data and mechanistic clinical studies to better understand immune-mediated diseases and eventually advance patient care. Her work focuses on identifying biomarkers that predict disease progression before and after diagnosis while advancing rigorous, reproducible approaches to translational immunology research.

At BRI, she leads the Experimental Medicine Unit, which conducts early-stage clinical trials investigating the biological mechanisms underlying type 1 diabetes (T1D) and the way that the immune system responds to therapeutic interventions, with the aim of informing future prevention and treatment strategies. She also coleads BRI’s biorepositories with Sandra Lord, MD, directs the Sound Life Project with Jane Buckner, MD, and oversees BRI’s Clinical Core Lab, which processes, maintains, and shares hundreds of thousands of research samples with colleagues in and outside BRI.

In addition to her own research, Dr. Speake serves as chair of the Immunology Working Group for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)-funded Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium and contributes to several leadership committees in NIDDK’s Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet network. She has served on the American Diabetes Association’s Precision Medicine Review Committee and the editorial board of Diabetes Care. She contributes to the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Treatment Guidelines and was co-author of current international consensus guidelines for glucose monitoring in people with multiple islet autoantibodies.