Latest Beta cell Stories

MONTREAL, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Tolerx, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies intended to treat diabetes, other autoimmune diseases and cancer by specifically modulating T-cell activity, today presented dose optimization data from its Phase 2 clinical study of otelixizumab in subjects with type 1 diabetes. Otelixizumab is a targeted T-cell immunomodulator currently being evaluated in DEFEND, a Phase 3 clinical study in subjects with new-onset autoimmune type 1...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital study results suggest new approaches for preventing diseaseSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have discovered how destructive immune cells gain access to insulin-producing cells and help cause diabetes.The finding points to possible new strategies to halt or prevent type I diabetes.Working in mice, researchers demonstrated that to enter key areas of the pancreas known as the islets of Langerhans, immune cells known as T cells must...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital study results suggest new approaches for preventing disease MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have discovered how destructive immune cells gain access to insulin-producing cells and help cause diabetes. The finding points to possible new strategies to halt or prevent type I diabetes. Working in mice, researchers demonstrated that to enter key areas of the pancreas known as the islets...

One of the biggest mysteries about diabetes is why specialized cells in the pancreas stop secreting insulin, which the body needs in order to store glucose from food. A team from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute has identified a protein that inhibits insulin production in mice - work that offers a new way of understanding, and perhaps of one day treating, both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.A study to be published today in the leading international journal Cell...

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Exsulin Corporation today announced the start of a phase II human clinical trial of Exsulin(TM), a peptide drug product aimed at restoring insulin production in people with diabetes mellitus. The randomized, controlled 12-week trial in patients with established Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) will be co-led by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada. First results are expected to be available in Q2 2010. The...

WYNNEWOOD, Pa., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- CureDM, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing novel therapeutic approaches to Diabetes Mellitus, announced today that CureDM has been chosen as the recipient of Frost and Sullivan's Technology Innovation Award for 2009 for its development of Pancreate(TM), a human peptide therapeutic. The 2009 North American Diabetes Mellitus Therapeutics Excellence in Healthcare Product Innovation of the Year Award is bestowed upon a company that...

Scientists from Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Denmark say they have identified a new gene involved in type 2 diabetes. The scientists said the gene, called Insulin Receptor Substrate 1, causes resistance to insulin and is the first gene known to affect how insulin works, not how it is produced. The researchers said their discovery could lead to better treatment of type 2 diabetes, as well as a better understanding of how the widespread disease develops. Most of the genes that we've...

By investigating a rare and severe form of diabetes in children, University of Iowa researchers have discovered a new molecular mechanism that regulates specialized pancreatic cells and insulin secretion. The mechanism involves a protein called ankyrin, which UI researchers previously linked to potentially fatal human heart arrhythmias.The findings, which appear this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help identify new molecular targets for...

Discovery is first gene known to affect how insulin works, not how it is producedA breakthrough by an international team of researchers in Canada, France, the UK and Denmark has uncovered a new gene that could lead to better treatment of type 2 diabetes, as well as a better understanding of how this widespread disease develops.Unlike most of the genes that have been shown to cause diabetes, the new gene, called Insulin Receptor Substrate 1 (IRS1), doesn't affect how insulin is created in the...

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Exsulin Corporation today announced milestones achieved and immediate plans to move forward as a well supported Minnesota-based company dedicated to the development of regeneration therapies for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Exsulin's focus is on development of a drug with potential to become a breakthrough therapy for patients suffering from type 1 (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Phase II human clinical trial data of Exsulin(TM) (INGAP...