By
AmyT on
September 4, 2009
{Editor’s Note: apparently I’m all over Time magazine this week, or it’s all over me…}
Finally, some breakthrough diabetes research that does not only involve mice! Time magazine’s August 31 issue reports on new a stem-cell-based study that involved taking skin cells from two people with type 1 diabetes, exposing the cells to “a cocktail of three genes that converted them back to an embryonic state,” and then “instructing” the cells to grow into beta…
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By
AmyT on
February 23, 2009
Get ready for a post with a lot of fancy science words. It can’t be helped. That’s because if you’re going to use pig cells to potentially cure type 1 diabetes, you need a LOT of science.
MicroIslet Inc. is a biotech firm based in San Diego, CA, that ironically declared bankruptcy last year, but is pulling itself up by the bootstraps to realize its transplantation therapy dream. It is now gearing up to launch…
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By
AmyT on
January 10, 2009
Finally, a press release that is unquestionably post-worthy: on Friday, the legendary Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston announced that it’s received a million-dollar grant to support type 1 diabetes research.
The money comes from a wealthy patient with his own philanthropic organization: the Thomas J. Beatson, Jr. Foundation. Beatson lives in Phoenix, AZ, and is also a Joslin Medalist for living with type 1 diabetes for 50 or more years. He’s given funds to the…
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A Canadian company called EnGene Inc. claims to have developed an innovative genetic approach to potentially overcoming diabetes. I’m using the term “overcoming” because what EnGene is working on is not a cure per se, but a pretty cool workaround.
Here’s the deal:
As you all know, insulin is produced in the human body by beta cells in the pancreas. In the case of Type 1 diabetes, the immune system’s T-cells destroy the beta cells…
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By
AmyT on
February 27, 2007
Meet Alberto Pugliese, M.D., a Research Associate Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Microbiology, and Head of the Immunogenetics Program at the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami, FL. He was scheduled to host a chat on “Reversing Autoimmunity” on the DiabetesTalkFest site on Feb. 8, but some technical difficulties prevented him from logging on. So he was kind enough to talk with us all via the DiabetesMine.com community here.
Since joining the DRI in 1994, Dr.…
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