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…
Read more »
By
AmyT on
November 6, 2008
Are diabetes headlines in the mainstream media mostly a bunch of hype, or do they bring us real hope for the future? The panel I moderated on this topic at the Diabetes Research Institute’s annual conference in New York City last week produced quite a lively discussion. I referenced all of your comments as well, so thank you all, Dear Readers!
As Dr. Jay Skyler pointed out, there’s only one letter difference between HYPE and…
Read more »
By
AmyT on
November 3, 2008
Imagine: Smart Insulin that could sense high glucose levels and automatically dispense insulin on demand. “As your glucose levels drop off, the drug stabilizes, trapping insulin until the next glucose spike.” WOW! So it knows if you’ve been bad or good and just jumps right in there to correct your BG like a healthy pancreas?!
You are kidding me, right? Weeeelll, not according to Todd Zion, founder and CEO of SmartCells, a privately held company…
Read more »
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…
Read more »
By
AmyT on
April 11, 2007
Man, there’s been an amazing amount of buzz and excitement over new stem cell research out of Brazil that may “rein in Type 1 diabetes.” By injecting 15 patients with their own stem cells, researchers were able to get these people off insulin entirely without any major negative side effects — so far.
Luminaries are quoted as saying that this exciting new treatment “is a big deal,” but the follow-up section in the LA Times…
Read more »
