These engineered T cells are autoreactive and human beta cell-specific, and have been used in chromium release assays with human islets as targets. The CD8+ T cells were isolated from healthy donor PBMCs and transduced with lentiviral vectors containing TCR expression constructs pCCL.IGRPopt.eGFP recognizing the autoantigen IGRP or LV.Mart1.TCR.RK recognizing the non-beta-cell antigen MART1, then expanded.