Looking To Cure Type 1 Diabetes, Investors Front $114m To Launch A Pioneering Human Study At Semma
Three years ago, Harvard’s Doug Melton published a landmark study outlining how he had successfully used stem cells to create insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells that were inserted in bulk into mice and successfully protected from an immune response — a breakthrough in regenerative medicine that bore real promise to provide a curative approach for Type 1 diabetes that could conceivably end a lifetime of insulin shots. It was the culmination of 23 years of lab work, launched when his son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. And that achievement marked the beginning of something new in biotech. That same year Semma Therapeutics would be launched — with a $44 million A round landing in 2015 — in pursuit of a mission to complete one of the most ambitious preclinical programs in the regenerative med field. And after working on all the nitty gritty research needed to see if this tech could be scaled up to human size, an expanded syndicate of venture investors have put together a whopping $114 million round with plans to take this into humans for a first-of-its-kind proof-of-concept study. One of the big challenges Semma faced in scaling up, Melton tells me, was to create a membrane specifically designed with pores that were large enough for molecules to pass through but too small for immune cells to penetrate. Using some calculations from the lab, Melton and his colleagues estimated that they would need some 150 million cells — possibly ranging up to three times that amount — in order to provide the natural insulin needed to eliminate the shots. Melton compares the membrane to a tea bag, but one that couldn’t be overloaded. The replacement cells, he said, “will only secrete the right amount depending on the level of sugar in the blood.” The big round mark Continue reading >>
Insulin Implant For Type-1 Diabetes
According to a report from NPR, there may be a huge breakthrough in the treatment of type-1 diabetes. Scientists in California think that they have found a way to implant a quarter sized flexible membrane under the skin that would release insulin into the body and be protected from the body’s immune system. The implant would have living islet cells from the pancreas and could potentially help the body regulate sugar levels. It’s exciting promise in the field of science to be sure. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Encellin team as they continue to push through towards a cure. In the meanwhile, join our team in the fight against diabetes by joining our club. We’d love to have you! image credit: NPR Continue reading >>
Breakthrough Diabetes Treatment Has No Side-effects In Mice
When talk about insulin comes up, most likely, the conversation is about diabetes. But what exactly is insulin? In simple terms, it’s a hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas that’s responsible for metabolizing sugar (for present or future use) so the body’s blood sugar stays at normal, ‘healthy’ levels. If your body can’t produce sufficient insulin or your cells do not react to insulin as they should, you may develop hypoglycemia (too little blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (too much blood sugar). Allowing either condition to persist can lead to diabetes. People with Type 1 diabetes don’t have insulin because their immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells that produce it. On the other hand, people with Type 2 diabetes do have beta cells — they just don’t function properly. The result is insufficient insulin production and inefficient use of insulin. Of the two types of diabetes, Type 1 is the more severe form, requiring insulin injections to stay alive. For some patients with Type 2 diabetes, however, diet alone may be enough to manage the condition. A breakthrough invention by Dr. Bruno Doiron and Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, both from the UT Health San Antonio, could pave the way for a permanent diabetes cure, and consequently eliminate the need for those painful insulin shots. Using mice as their test subjects, the duo applied a technique called ‘gene transfer’. It works by using a virus to carry and deliver specially engineered genes into the pancreas, incorporating themselves into the organ, and causing other cell types to produce insulin. The result? The mice got cured of their diabetes. “It worked perfectly. We cured mice for one year without any side effects. That’s never been seen. But it’s a mouse model, so caution is needed. Continue reading >>
Fasting Diet Could Regenerate Pancreas And Reverse Diabetes, Researchers Say
A fasting diet has the ability to regenerate the pancreas and could potentially reverse diabetes, researchers have found. A US study, published in scientific journal Cell, tested a modified version of the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) on both mice and human cells. The findings showed cycles of the diet could regenerate pancreatic cells to restore insulin in type 1 diabetes patients and could also reverse both type 1 and 2 diabetes in mice. The study's co-author, Dr Valter Longo from the University of Southern California, told the ABC the findings were "potentially very exciting" because they could lead to cures for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, unlike type 2, is an autoimmune condition for which there is no known cause or cure. In patients with type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing insulin. Dr Longo also said a FMD could also regenerate other organs because their research had shown similar effects for blood cells. "They show that extreme diets with very specific compositions can trigger self repair and regeneration processes in the mouse and possibly humans," Dr Longo said. Taking into account the challenges and side-effects of fasting in humans, Dr Longo and his team developed a modified low-calorie, low-protein and low-carbohydrate but high-fat four-day FMD. The diet caused changes in the levels of specific growth factors, glucose, and ketone bodies and reduced the blood glucose on pre-diabetic patients. Mice receiving the FMD showed improved glucose tolerance and insulin tolerance. The pancreas helps to control blood sugar levels and restoring the organ can reverse the symptoms of diabetes. The diet can regenerate the pancreas by reprogramming cells into "beta cells" that make insulin. The study found cycles of the FMD could promote the gen Continue reading >>
A Permanent Cure For Type 1 Diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is the most prevalent metabolic disorder among young people. Approximately two million Europeans suffer from the disease, and the group of patients grows by an average of 3% annually. The origins of the disease remain unknown, but an effective therapy with permanent results and without side effects may be found in the near future, according to Professor Chantal Mathieu of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology. A new approach using active biopharmaceuticals appears promising. Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disorder by which the immune system of the patient attacks his/her own body. Insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed, deregulating the patient’s blood sugar levels and leading the patient to require regular insulin injections to survive. Moreover, complications such as eye diseases, kidney conditions and vascular diseases may drastically reduce life expectancy and quality of life. But new research may change this reality. The new therapy was developed by ActoGenix, a biopharmaceutical spin-off of Ghent University and the VIB. The spin-off specialises in the development and valorisation of ActoBiotics, a new class of orally administered and locally active biopharmaceuticals. Professor Mathieu’s team conducted a study with mice at KU Leuven, funded by European and international research grants. ActoBiotics significantly reduced newly developed type 1 diabetes permanently and had no side effects. “Therein lies the breakthrough”, Professor Mathieu says. “Until now, the most successful treatment for newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes in mice only worked for a period of approximately six months in humans. What is more, these therapies also had significant side effects. Our approach promises to have a more lasti Continue reading >>
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Breakthrough Development Could Cure Type 1 Diabetes
A team of scientists lead by Professor Douglas Melton of Harvard’s Medical School have developed a technique for converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, a breakthrough that could potentially cure type 1 diabetes. Attack on beta cells Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that currently contributes to 10% of cases of diabetes in South Africa, according to Sweet Life Mag. From this statistic, we can estimate that there are approximately 84 000 to 150 000 type 1 diabetics in South Africa. The condition occurs when the body launches an immune attack on the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. As the beta cells are destroyed, the pancreas can no longer produce the amount of insulin required by the body. This is why type 1 diabetics need to take insulin for the rest of their lives after they develop the condition. Insulin is required to regulate the level of glucose in the blood. Read: Possibility of once weekly insulin shots for diabetics Professor Melton and his team have successfully created cells that can produce insulin, detect the amount of glucose in the blood and excrete the correct amount of insulin into the bloodstream. The cells were then transplanted into diabetic mice where they functioned normally, maintaining the blood glucose levels of the mice for the duration of the six month experiment, CBS News states. This result has taken 15 years to achieve and could mark the end of insulin injections and pumps for type 1 diabetics; however human trials are still some years away. Because the body continues to attack the beta cells in type 1 diabetics, simply placing new beta cells in the pancreas will not solve the problem. After time, these new cells will be destroyed too. Because of this, Melton and his team are working on ways of ‘ Continue reading >>
Sa Researchers Discover Type 1 Diabetes Cure In Mice
SAN ANTONIO - A pair of researchers at UT Health San Antonio have come up with a cure for Type 1 diabetes in mice and may have found a way to eliminate the need for insulin shots for Type 2 diabetics. "Of course it's a big step, from mice to man, but if we could achieve this, it would actually be a cure for Type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, professor of medicine and chief of the Diabetes Division at UT Health San Antonio. "For people with Type 2 diabetes, they wouldn't have to take insulin shots anymore." DeFronzo and Dr. Bruno Doiron, assistant professor of medicine in the Diabetes Division at UT Health San Antonio, made the discovery by using a cocktail of molecules to trick the pancreas into producing more vital insulin. "We can now use your own body to create the medicine, and that's a revolution for the future," Doiron said. The major breakthrough is very exciting news for Ellie Lopez, who has been battling Type 1 diabetes for 14 years. Lopez said she constantly struggles with glucose levels. "You also have to figure out how much exercise you do, or what you are doing that day because it all eats up sugar, too," she said. "So if you take too much medicine, you'll have a low, and that's probably the worst feeling in the world. It's almost like you have to be a mathematician to figure out the right numbers all the time. It's a constant battle." Lopez hopes that one day, DeFronzo's and Doiron's breakthrough will come true for humans. -------------------------------------------------------- Don't miss a thing. Get email alerts from KSAT12 today. Get alerted to news events as they happen or sign up for a scheduled news headline email that is delivered right to your inbox. Breaking news, severe weather, daily forecasts, entertainment news, all of the day’s imp Continue reading >>
Major Breakthrough Made In Treatment Of Type 1 Diabetes
Two studies have been released that appear to show a potential new therapy for those living with type 1 diabetes that wouldn’t use drugs to suppress the immune system. Currently, type 1 diabetes –an autoimmune disease that kills insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas – requires daily injections of insulin with one treatment option being a transplant to replace the patient’s islet cells, which are clumps of cells which create insulin in the pancreas. However, because the body sees this transplant as an invasive species in the body, the patient also needs to take immunosuppressant drugs. This treatment, while beneficial in the short term, gradually loses effectiveness over time as the immunosuppressant drugs gradually destroy the implanted islet cells leaving the patient back at square one. Now, according to Diabetes Ireland, there have been two papers published in Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology, respectively, which detail a new potential treatment that would encapsulate the new islet cells and protect them from the immunosuppressant drugs, thereby allowing them to control their blood sugar level without the need to take any drugs. The first paper showed the team had developed their modified alginate material capable of encapsulating the islet cells. The material, developed from brown algae, had been used before in attempts to encapsulate cells without causing them any direct harmful effects but it had been shown that, over time, scar tissue would eventually build up that would render the treatment useless. Could establish long-term insulin independence However, developing the concept further, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers discovered that one modified alginate – triazole-thiomorpholine dioxide (TMTD) – did not prov Continue reading >>
Gore Joins Viacyte’s Quest For A Functional Type 1 Diabetes Cure
A cure for type 1 diabetes has been “just around the corner” for decades now — or so patients have been told. But the moonshot mission has been rough. ViaCyte knows this well after years 18 years of R&D. With every step of progress, a new mountain of challenges looms. The company puts its head down and troubleshoots through, with backing from private investors, pharma partners, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF). On Wednesday, the San Diego, California-based company announced a new partner; W. L. Gore & Associates, the multi-billion dollar manufacturer of medical and non-medical fabrics and devices, including the iconic GORE-TEX. If Gore can contribute some materials expertise, one more problem could get solved. The partnership centers around ViaCyte’s flagship islet replacement therapy. Type 1 diabetes (aka juvenile diabetes) is an autoimmune disease. It accounts for around 5 percent of all diabetes cases. Some 95 percent are caused by so-called adult-onset diabetes, which is a longer-term metabolic disorder. While genetic and environmental factors are believed to play a role, the ultimate trigger for type 1 diabetes is not known. At some point, the immune system incorrectly recognizes beta cells in the pancreas as foreign or threatening. It begins systematically destroying them and with that, the ability of the body to produce insulin. Insulin is the key that allows glucose to enter cells. Without insulin, glucose builds up in the bloodstream while cells are effectively being starved. For decades, patients have replaced the missing insulin with a synthetic version. Yet dosing is problematic. Too little insulin and the blood glucose levels rise; too much and the patient becomes hypoglycemic � Continue reading >>
Researchers Study Cure For Type 1 Diabetes In Stem Cell Transplantations
Bart Roep, Ph.D., the Chan Soon-Shiong Shapiro Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and professor/founding chair of the Department of Diabetes Immunology (Photo: Business Wire) DUARTE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Some type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients can be cured from the disease, at least for a number of years, with a stem cell transplant — those were the results of a clinical trial monitored by City of Hope’s Bart Roep, Ph.D., the Chan Soon-Shiong Shapiro Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and professor/founding chair, Department of Diabetes Immunology. The results were published recently in the journal, Frontiers in Immunology. Trial by @cityofhope researchers shows T1D patients cured, at least for few years, with stem cell transplant Tweet this “This means we can cure type 1 diabetes, be it with a risky therapy — although one that is also very successful in cancer, and one for which City of Hope is a world-renowned expert, with more than 13,000 patients having received similar treatment for blood cancers,” said Roep, director of The Wanek Family Project for Type 1 Diabetes, which aims to find a cure for T1D in six years. “We now understand stem cell transplants can succeed in treating diabetes for some, but not in others, and we can predict either outcome before the therapy is administered by ‘reading’ the immune signature of the patient with a novel nanotechnology that I developed.” An international team of researchers, including Roep, conducted the trial in Brazil. It showed that autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT), which uses a person’s own stem cells, increases C-peptide levels — that show how much insulin is being made by the pancreas — and induces insulin independence in patients with T1D. This is possible because the transpla Continue reading >>
Report: Apple Has Secret Team Working On ‘breakthrough’ Diabetes Treatment W/ Apple Watch
Apple has kicked up its focus on health over recent years, but the company isn’t stopping just yet. According to a new report from CNBC, Apple has a secret team currently working on developing a solution for treating diabetes that would be seen as the “holy grail” for the condition… The report, citing three people familiar with the matter, explains that Apple has hired a “small team” of biomedical engineers to work on the initiative. The team is said to be based out of an unmarked, nondescript office in Palo Alto, California. The initiative sees Apple working on developing sensors that can constantly monitor blood sugar levels to better treat diabetes. While specific timeline information is unclear, the company is reportedly far enough along in it testing that it has been conducting feasibility trials: The initiative is far enough along that Apple has been conducting feasibility trials at clinical sites across the Bay Area and has hired consultants to help it figure out the regulatory pathways, the people said. One of the sources explained that Apple is developing optical sensors, which work by shining a light through the skin to measure glucose levels. To accurately be able to measure glucose levels would be a huge breakthrough for Apple and the medical industry as a whole. Accurately detecting glucose levels has been such a challenge that one of the top experts in the space, John L. Smith, described it as “the most difficult technical challenge I have encountered in my career.” To succeed would cost a company “several hundred millions or even a billion dollars,” DexCom executive chairman Terrance Gregg previously told Reuters. Such an initiative was first imagined by Steve Jobs and Apple has been working on it for five years. Jobs imagined the solu Continue reading >>
Stem Cell Breakthrough Edges Scientists Closer To Effective Treatment For Type 1 Diabetes
Thanks to a breakthrough in stem cell research, scientists are tantalizingly close to finally achieving an effective treatment for type 1 diabetes. Using human embryonic stem cells, Harvard researchers have developed a technique that allows them to produce insulin-producing cells in quantities sufficient for both drug discovery and transplantation into diabetes sufferers. Due to the success of pre-clinical non-human animal trials, the researchers are hopeful that human trials could be initiated in just a few years. The work has been published in Cell. Diabetes is a metabolic disease which results in higher than normal blood sugar levels for prolonged periods. There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. The former, which accounts for around 10% of diabetes cases, is an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Because insulin is not produced, the body is unable to regulate blood glucose levels. While sufferers can maintain relatively normal blood glucose levels with daily insulin injections, it is often not precise enough to properly control metabolism, which can lead to serious complications such as blindness. Researchers have therefore been exploring new ways to tackle the disease in order to overcome these problems. Given the vast therapeutic potential of stem cells, scientists wondered whether it might be possible to replace the beta cells in diabetic patients as a novel form of therapy. Although scientists previously managed to produce insulin-producing cells from human stem cells, they lacked many of the functional characteristics of pancreatic beta cells. However, the new technique pioneered by Harvard scientists allowed the team to produce hundreds of millions of mature beta cells from stem cells. Th Continue reading >>
Scientists Move One Step Closer To “curing” Diabetes Using First-ever Stem Cell Implant
Clinical trials have begun for ViaCyte's PEC-Direct, an implant that grows insulin-producing cells from stem cells to treat type 1 diabetes patients. If successful, the implant could eliminate the need for these patients to inject themselves with insulin. No More Injections The World Health Organization reports that more than 422 million people worldwide are living with diabetes, a condition that can take two forms. In the first, the body’s immune system attacks cells in the pancreas, preventing the organ from producing enough insulin [type 1 diabetes (T1D)]. In the second, the body doesn’t know how to use the insulin that is produced [type 2 diabetes (TD2)]. T1D accounts for roughly 10 percent of diabetes cases, and unlike T2D, which can often be reversed through lifestyle changes such as weight loss or increased exercise, scientists have yet to figure out how to prevent or cure T1D. Right now, T1D is best managed by balancing insulin doses, but this method can be problematic in high-risk cases, taking time to act. Moreover, patients with hypoglycemia (low glucose) unawareness may not notice when their blood sugar drops dangerously low. Thankfully, researchers all over the world are hard at work looking for a cure that will free T1D patients from their dependence on insulin injections and from risky situations when their levels drop low. Now, one group may have found such a cure. Just last week, California-based company ViaCyte began trials involving two T1D patients who were implanted with the company’s PEC-Direct device. Each of these credit card-sized implants carries cells built from stem cells. These cells are designed to mature inside the human body into the specialized pancreas cells the immune system destroys in those with T1D. The implant is placed just Continue reading >>
Giant Leap Against Diabetes
Harvard stem cell researchers announced today that they have made a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type 1 diabetes, a disease that affects an estimated 3 million Americans at a cost of about $15 billion annually. With human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, the scientists were for the first time able to produce, in the kind of massive quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes, human insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in most every way to normally functioning beta cells. Doug Melton, who led the work, said he hopes to have human transplantation trials using the cells under way within a few years. Twenty-three years ago, when his infant son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Melton dedicated his career to finding a cure for the disease. “We are now just one preclinical step away from the finish line,” said Melton, whose daughter Emma also has type 1 diabetes. A report on the new work is being published today by the journal Cell. How they grow A spinner flask — containing red culture media, cells and a magnetic stir bar — is placed on top of a magnetic stirrer. Magnified images show how single cells quickly grow into clusters. Credit: Mikey Segel Felicia W. Pagliuca, Jeff Millman, and Mads Gurtler of Melton’s lab are co-first authors on the Cell paper. The research group and paper authors include a Harvard undergraduate. “You never know for sure that something like this is going to work until you’ve tested it numerous ways,” said Melton, Harvard’s Xander University Professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “We’ve given these cells three separate challenges with glucose in mice, and they’ve responded appropriately; that was really exciting. “ Continue reading >>
A Quest: Insulin-releasing Implant For Type-1 Diabetes
Scientists in California think they may have found a way to transplant insulin-producing cells into diabetic patients who lack those cells — and protect the little insulin-producers from immune rejection. Their system, one of several promising approaches under development, hasn't yet been tested in people. But if it works, it could make living with diabetes much less of a burden. For now, patients with Type-1 diabetes have to regularly test their blood sugar levels, and inject themselves with insulin when it's needed. Some researchers are developing machines to automate that process. But Crystal Nyitray, founder and CEO of the biotechnology startup Encellin, in San Francisco, didn't want to use a machine to treat diabetes. As a graduate student in bioengineering at the University of California, San Francisco a few years ago, Nyitray wanted to try something different: living cells. "Cells are the ultimate smart machine," she says. Clinical trials that transplant insulin-making pancreatic cells into people with diabetes have been underway for several years, with some success. But the recipient's immune system is hard on these transplanted cells, and most patients still need insulin injections eventually. Nyitray and colleagues designed a system that would encase live islet cells from the pancreas in a flexible membrane that could be implanted under the skin. Insulin and blood sugar could pass through the membrane, but cells from the recipient's immune system would be kept out, preventing immune rejection. "I think of it like if you're sitting in a house and you have the window open with a screen," Nyitray says. "So you can feel the breeze of the air outside, and smell everything, but the bugs and the flies aren't able to get through because you have the screen in place. Continue reading >>
