JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

A JDRF-funded clinical trial has shown that a drug used to treat certain types of cancer can protect beta cells, and therefore preserve insulin production, in people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The trial, conducted in the US through the international Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet consortium and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, provides the first conclusive evidence that it is possible to target particular types of immune cells to reduce or prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes.

Read more...

Australian scientists have made a discovery that may one day remove the need for a lifetime of toxic immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplants.

Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have successfully tested a method of adjusting the immune system for just long enough to receive a tissue transplant and accept it as ‘self’. At no stage, during or after the procedure, is there any need for immunosuppressive drugs.

Lead by Professor Jonathon Sprent, the research team used a special immune boosting “complex” to successfully transplant islet cells into diabetic mice without the need of immunosuppression.

Read more...