Science | Page 11 of 29

The Road to a Type 1 Diabetes Cure: Encapsulation

When Doug Melton’s Harvard lab made the announcement last October that they had succeeded in turning human stem cells into functional beta cells, Melton, in a conversation with reporters, talked, too, about the other piece of the puzzle that might enable these cells to survive T1D’s autoimmune attack: encapsulation.

British Researchers Discover Cell Behind Type 1 Diabetes

Knowing more about the type of T cell that causes type 1 is definitely good news for future treatments...

Building Beta Cells: An Interview with Dr. Timothy Kieffer

The benefit of making mature beta cells entirely in the dish is that they may be a useful resource for research aimed at understanding the causes of diabetes (both Type 1 and Type 2) as well as developing new therapeutic strategies for diabetes. Moreover, ultimately, mature beta cells may prove to be better than pancreatic progenitor cells for transplant into patients with diabetes.

Medtronic Launches New Minimed 640G Insulin Pump (in Australia)

Medtronic, Inc. announced the global launch of the MiniMed 640G System, the next breakthrough toward an artificial pancreas. The system is the first in the world to both automatically suspend insulin delivery when sensor glucose levels are predicted to approach a low limit, and then resume insulin delivery once sensor glucose levels recover.

Asian Americans Develop Diabetes at Lower BMI Levels

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has decided to lower the Body Mass Index (BMI) cut point at which it recommends screening Asian Americans for type 2 diabetes. This change in ADA guidelines is aligned with evidence that many Asian Americans develop the disease at lower BMI levels than the population at large, according to a position statement being published in the January issue of Diabetes Care.

Orgenesis Receives New Patent for Potential T1D Cure

The liver and pancreas originate from the same embryonic lineage – the endoderm. In fact, both organs develop from the same original group of cells in the embryo. Because of this, they also share many genetic transcription factors and – perhaps most importantly – they each have a built-in glucose sensing system.

Medtronic Launches Study Of New Predictive Low Glucose Management (PLGM) Technology

Medtronic has begun enrolling patients in an investigational device exemption (IDE) study of its new and innovative Predictive Low Glucose Management (PLGM) technology. The start of this study marks a critical step toward development of an artificial pancreas in the U.S. market.

On the Road to a Type 1 Diabetes Cure: Melton Lab Creates Functioning Beta Cells

Using human embryonic stem cells as a base, the lab has pioneered a process that can reproduce human, insulin-producing beta cells on a large scale. As Melton said in a conference call with journalists, “What we’re reporting on is something that I think was obvious to many as a possible solution but just turned out to be difficult to achieve, and that is the creation of human beta cells that properly respond to sugar or glucose and secrete the right amount of insulin.”

JDRF Type 1 Diabetes Research Updates: What You Need to Know

I am a lucky JDRF volunteer. I get to learn all about Type 1 diabetes research, have it translated for me into my own language (which is “regular person who does not know big words”), and then I get to go all over the country sharing news about Type 1 diabetes research with others who speak my language.

Can Treg Infusions Thwart the Immune Response in Type 1 Diabetes?

What researchers are investigating through Rooney’s trial is whether or not another component of the immune system called T regulatory cells, or Tregs, can thwart the aggressive immune response that destroys beta cells, according to Dr. Douglas Losordo, Chief Medical Officer for NeoStem, the company developing and testing the Treg treatment.