Researchers at MIT successfully tested an engineered “smart insulin” on mice that reacts to blood sugar levels.
“To make insulin that is…
A new survey reveals that many Hispanics are aware that diabetes is dangerous, but compared to non-Hispanics, they are poorly informed about how to best treat the disease. The survey may reveal ways to enact more effective communication tools to better inform Hispanics about improving their diabetes care.
New long-acting insulin configurations are being developed and launched because the patent on Lantus is set to expire soon. In the United States the Lantus patent expires February 2015 and the drug’s patent expires in Europe in May 2015.
Jacobson was involved in the most comprehensive long-term study of whether hypoglycemia adversely impacts brain function. As part of a team Jacobson studied the effects of improved blood sugar control on type 1 diabetic patients who were participants in The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial—or DCCT.
“I’m a big proponent of islet cell transplantation for type 2 diabetics,” says Dr. Gordon Weir, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on islet cell transplantation as Co-Head of the Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology, the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation Chair at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “I tell people this and they look at me like I’m a little nuts. But, I believe there is no reason it couldn’t work effectively. I’m actually more optimistic about islet cell transplant for type 2 than for type 1.”
Lifebringer is a free, interactive web-based app for type 1 and 2 diabetics, as well as newly diagnosed diabetics, that goes beyond simply tracking blood sugars and organizing numbers input users. It also uses Meehan’s program, called Nagbot, to interact with the user. Nagbot sends encouraging emails to the user over their computer, tablet, or mobile device reminding them to test, or letting them know how they’re doing, and suggesting ways to improve their health. Nagbot, in other words, acts as a helpful companion.
Jeff Hitchcock and his website, Children with Diabetes, have gone through some significant changes recently. These changes reflect how growth and success brings its own set of challenges, and also reflect some larger changes taking place in how diabetes functions as a business.
Until now, the effectiveness of GAD antibody testing as a diagnostic has not been completely endorsed by the scientific community. Researchers at the Institute of Diabetes Research at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, partners in the Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung (DZD - German Center for Diabetes Research) however, have concluded a study that recommends use of the test in diagnosing LADA.
Sometimes, when you’re stuck and spinning your wheels without making much forward progress, putting it in reverse can get you going. That’s what Dr. Lawrence Steinman and his colleagues are doing by attempting to cure type 1 diabetes with a unique and groundbreaking “reverse vaccine.”
The change in thinking about the ways type 2 diabetes evolves indirectly opened the door to considering new ways of thinking about how type 1 diabetes behaves. That shift led to considering whether that door swung both ways and if type 1 diabetics might benefit from treatments designed to treat type 2 diabetes.