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Upcoming research - where's the best place to find it?

T

The Governor

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This is two-proinged really.

First off I'm interesting in reading about what is being worked on regarding Diabetes control (or cure!!).

Also, is there anything anyone has heard of that shows a chink of light on the horizon?

My feeling is that it will be ten years minimum before anything dramatic is even possible, let alone available. It strikes me that the control hasn't really evolved beyond Insulin really, ultimately that seems to be the the big gun in the fight against the disease (condition?).
 
Hello The Governor,
Here's a list of the research that I know about, but I'm sure there's plenty more out there.

Companies currently developing cures/enhanced treatments for T1 and T2

CureDM
http://www.curedm.com/

MicroIslet
http://www.microislet.com/

DeveloGen
http://www.develogen.com/en/index.php

Cerco Medical
http://www.isletmedical.com/

Living Cell Technologies
http://www.lctglobal.com/index.php

Diamyd Medical
http://www.diamyd.com/

Diakine Therapeutics
http://www.diakine.com/

Also of interest:

Denise Faustman, MD, PhD
http://www.massgeneral.org/diabetes/faculty_faustman.htm
 
That's some interesting reading there Tim, I wonder how credible it all is.

On the face of it, it looks like there is promise, but a lot of it is dressed up in "investor/venture capitalist" speak, so I worry that it is seen as a revenue stream, as opposed to an epxression of altruism :D

Interesting though, a clear sign we need more stem cell research, eh?
 
There is a search tool for all the ADA journals @http://professional.diabetes.org/Journals_search.aspx
The full texts of most of the papers are available online (except for the most recent for which abstracts are available)
If you put in the vague word cure, you will find all sorts of experimental trials such as 'reversal of diabetes in pancreatectomised pigs after transplatation on neonatal porcine islets' but also things such as Is weight loss a cure for type 2 diabetes? (the latter is actually a discussion about whether gastric banding is an effective treatment')


The ADA recommendations are often maligned but it is interesting to read their latest statement (2007)on diet. It includes the evidence used to make their recommendations. The evidence is graded. (Grade A from large well controlled trials, B well controlled cohort studies Grade C, poor or uncontrolled studies and E expert consensus or clinical experience)http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/suppl_1/S48#SEC5
 
If you know what you are looking for, then use Google Scholar - it is one of the main tools that academics use to find new scientific literature. If you choose the Advanced Scholar Search then you can specify things like authors names and a date range. The tricky bit is that you need a way in - for it to be useful you need to be looking for something specific. If you just search for "diabetes" - or even something like "diabetes 'stem cells'" then you would get an avalanche of material and it becomes very hit or miss. For it to be useful you need either very specific search terms or authors names. You can often get these from news sites - I usually use Google News to do a general search and then follow it up with Google Scholar to find the original paper.
 
The Governor said:
I said in another thread, but it bears repeating. Looking at diabetes.org.uk the money going into research is paltry!
Click to expand...
Well, sort of. Diabetes research is one of the major areas of medical research because it is the "glamorous" end of medicine. Anyone who comes up with a treatment that comes even close to being a "cure" will probably win a Nobel prize and certainly be an instant scientific superstar. That sort of prospect attracts a lot of attention and funding. It is nothing like the funding that goes into even more glamorous areas like cancer or HIV, but it is still a lot. Back in the days when I was doing research, I mostly worked on parasitic diseases. The problem with that is that they mostly affect poor people from third world countries, and although these diseases blight the lives of millions they aren't very visible in the west - it certainly isn't "glamorous" research. We could only dream of the sort of funding that is available to diabetes specialists! However, if you compare the sort of funds that are spent on all medical research with other major sinks for public funding - such as keeping troops in Afghanistan - then you certainly could call the levels of funding paltry.
 
Sorry, Gov, I meant my reply to go to you, not DG.

Russ
 
Now I see you've probably already seen Research Matters, Gov. Didn't read the post properly. Sorry.

Russ
 
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