Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease leading to severe loss of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The causes of this disease are still unknown. Due to this fact, T1D cannot be effectively prevented or reversed. Pancreas or islet transplantation can revert diabetes, but require chronic immunosuppression, and both chronic rejection and recurrence of islet autoimmunity may affect long-term graft survival. The JDRF Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) is a tissue bank and a team science effort aimed at understanding the etiopathogenesis of T1D. nPOD has enabled unprecedented access to rare tissues derived from organ donors with T1D and with risk for the disease to investigators worldwide. The 8th nPOD Annual Meeting revealed new insights on T1D, covering multiple aspects of etiology, beta cell biology, and islet autoimmunity, emerging from the studies of nPOD investigators and collaborative working groups. The data being generated and shared by nPOD investigators will be instrumental in translating findings into better therapies, possibly even a cure or prevention, for T1D.