JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

European researchers have successfully converted pancreas cells into insulin-producing beta cells by altering a single gene.

In a major finding that adds to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing tissue in people with type 1 diabetes, JDRF-funded researchers have shown that beta cells can be made using another type of pancreas cell by simply turning on a specific gene called PAX4.

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Thirty years of data from international trials show that the rate of serious complications amongst people with type 1 diabetes is lower that was has been reported historically.

Researchers from the JDRF-funded Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and the Epidemiology of Diabetes Intervention and Complications Trial (EDIC) have analysed the incidence of long-term type 1 diabetes complications amongst trial participants and found that the rate of type 1 diabetes complications has changed dramatically, particularly for people who intensively manage their condition.

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New clinical trial data suggests certain blood pressure medications can significantly slow the progression of diabetic eye disease.

US researchers have published data from a five-year multi-center clinical trial that demonstrates that the use medications commonly used to treat high pressure can help to prevent and slow progression of diabetic retinopathy.

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JDRF has entered into a novel research agreement with the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) to develop therapies for type 1 diabetes.

The four-year partnership, the largest in the history of JDRF, aims to progress a number of potential drug candidates to clinical trials.

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JDRF statement on AIHW figures

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has today released a new report in their Diabetes Series entitled “Insulin-treated diabetes in Australia 2000-2007″. The full report is available online.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) welcomes this detailed analysis of one of Australia’s most common chronic diseases but is alarmed by the report of sharp increases in new cases of type 1 diabetes in children.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA has issued an alert about the possibility that people with type 1 diabetes who take certain medicines that contain non-glucose sugars might get falsely elevated readings from home blood sugar monitors if they use a specific kind of test strip.

These false high readings could be dangerous, because they might mask low blood sugars or cause people to take excessive amounts of insulin. The test strips in question are GDH-PQQ glucose test strips, and there is a list of medications that might result in incorrect readings – as well as additional information – on the FDA website at

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/PatientAlerts/ucm177189.htm

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The Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council has announced the 10 Best Research Projects in Australia 2009 and a JDRF researcher has made the list.

The book and accompanying series of podcasts was launched today by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, the Hon Mark Butler MP, with the aim of encouraging the next generation of health and medical researchers.

“10 of the Best is testament to the excellence and innovation of Australian health and medical research,” Mr Butler said. “These inspiring projects show the challenges, rewards and potential for effecting real change that comes from working in this frontier area of science.”

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New York, NY, August 6, 2009 — In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe — co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation — have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

In results of a study published today in the journal Cell, the researchers, led by Patrick Collombat of the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany and Ahmed Mansouri of the University of Göttingen in Germany, in collaboration with researchers at the JDRF Center for Beta Cell Therapy in Diabetes in Brussels, discovered in mice that new insulin-producing beta cells can be generated from alpha cells in the islets of the pancreas by modifying the expression of a specific gene (Pax4) in alpha cells. (Alpha cells generate the hormone glucagon in response to low blood sugar to restore normal blood sugar levels.)  They also discovered that the alpha cells that give rise to new beta cells originate from progenitor cells in the pancreas. The newly formed beta cells result in better glucose control and prolonged survival of younger mice with diabetes.

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