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Automated insulin delivery system will ease some of the burden of living with the condition "This first-of-its-kind technology can provide people with type 1 diabetes greater freedom to live their lives without having to consistently and manually monitor baseline glucose levels and administer insulin," Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in an agency news release. The device -- Medtronic's MiniMed 670G -- is what's known as a hybrid closed-loop system. That means it monitors blood sugar and then delivers necessary background (also known as basal) insulin doses. The device will also shut...

I BEG TO DIFFER Dr. Denise Faustman thinks she has a shot at curing diabetes. She has published one significant scientific paper after another on the disease. She has succeeded in curing it in mice, something no one else has accomplished. But when Dr. Faustman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, went looking for money to finance the next stage of her research, testing the ideas with diabetes patients, she could find no backers. Pharmaceutical companies turned her down. So did the Juvenile Diabetes Research Association. Her approach was criticized, even though in the past, said her boss, Dr....

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922, type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes) in humans has been treated by injecting insulin to lower high blood sugar levels and prevent diabetic coma. New findings by UT Southwestern researchers, which appear online and in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that insulin isn't the only agent that is effective. Leptin, a...

BETHESDA, Maryland, July 26, 2008 (Reuters) — Researchers working on an artificial pancreas believe they are just a few years away from a nearly carefree way for people with diabetes to monitor blood and inject insulin as needed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Topics Health and Fitness Internal Medicine Medical Specializations Medicine Science and Technology Ads by GoogleAdvertise here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blood Sugar Levels guide Looking to find Blood Sugar Levels? See our Blood Sugar Levels guide. Friendsofanimals.ComDiabetes Treatment Order Products to Lower your Blood Sugar Without Having to use Drugs. believe they can link two current technologies -- continuous glucose monitoring and insulin...

Ahmedabad: There is good news for diabetes patients as there may be a stem cell cure for the disease. Dr H L Trivedi and his team from Ahmedabad claim that they have discovered a cell that is present in human fat that can produce insulin, when cultivated. "If we could transplant stem cells which have the ability to cure diabetes, then it's the final of final and ultimate of ultimate as far as cure for diabetes is concerned,” says Dr Trivedi, who is the director of Institute of Kidney Diseases, The miracle stem cell can be transplanted into the liver,...

Although a number of unique diabetes treatments are already in the works, researchers at Johns Hopkins University are giving it a shot of their own with a newfangled intravascular implant. A team of undergrads have collaborated with doctors and biomedical engineers to develop a "specialized implant for a potential treatment of type I diabetes," which has been created for implantation inside the portal vein in order to dole out insulin when needed. The pouch would ideally be "impregnated with insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells," but researchers have insinuated that this same system could possibly be used to treat other ailments such...

uWink to Host Charity Event for Juvenile Diabetes at Grand Opening Celebration for New Restaurant Monday November 13, 1:27 pm ET Special Guests will be Treated to uWink's Unique Combination of Food, Drinks and Digital Media LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--uWink, Inc. (OTCBB: UWNK - News), a publicly held digital entertainment company, will host a charity Grand Opening event benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) on November 30, 2006. The celebration will be held at uWink's newly opened Woodland Hills location from 6:00pm - 10:00pm. The invitation-only event will offer guests the opportunity to experience uWink's innovative combination of food, drinks...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Digital Angel Corporation a patent for its syringe-implantable glucose-sensing RFID microchip, Digital Angel announced today. The RFID microchip measures the glucose concentration levels of diabetic patients and will be marketed and distributed by Digital Angel's sister company, VeriChip, as an extension to the company's products benefiting people. "A glucose-sensing microchip could profoundly impact the 230 million people worldwide living with diabetes," said Digital Angel CEO and President, Kevin McGrath. "Patent approval for this RFID microchip is a major step in bringing this life-altering technology to market. It also underscores Digital Angel's commitment...

Diabetics Warned About Fake Test Strips From Associated Press October 14, 2006 6:26 AM EDT WASHINGTON - The government warned diabetics Friday to watch for counterfeit versions of test strips commonly used to monitor blood sugar levels. The test strips, for use in glucose monitors made by a Johnson & Johnson company, were distributed nationwide, the Food and Drug Administration said in a public alert. The phony test strips are for use with various models of LifeScan Inc.'s OneTouch brand of blood glucose monitors. LifeScan is part of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson. The counterfeit test strips could give...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The latest study on islet cell transplantation has both good and bad news for people with type 1 diabetes. The good news is that nearly half of those who receive an islet cell transplant are insulin-free at one year after transplant; the bad news is that by the end of the second year that number drops to about one in seven. Still, researchers expect that with improvements in the technical aspects of the procedure, and better anti-rejection drugs, those numbers will improve. "A phenomenal amount of glycemic control can be provided with islet transplantation,"...

Cord Lining Stem Cells discovered by CellResearch Corporation makes headway in areas with exciting potential therapeutic applications. CellResearch Corporation, a Singapore-based biotech company, announced in July 2005 its discovery of a new source of stem cells found in the outer lining membrane of the umbilical cord. Not only does this source of stem cells yield an extremely high number of cells, it also avoids ethical objections as it is acquired from the afterbirth which is routinely discarded as medical waste. CellResearch Corporation is now ready to reveal new collaborations with various medical institutions in Singapore and around the world that...

The Invisible Revolution By Reason McLucus The news media are ignoring a major medical revolution. Doctors and scientists have been making major strides in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the last decade. Journalists write news stories about embryonic stem cells which only promise to be useful sometime in the distant future and ignore the fact that doctors have been using adult stem cells to grow bones and treat various disorders for years. Harvard University’s Dr. Joseph P. Vacanti and his brother Dr. Charles A. Vacanti have been among the leaders in this field. Joseph Vacanti began...

Foundation Seeks $11 Million to Fund Promising Research in HumansDiabetes in Mice Cured Using Non-Embryonic SourcesBy Dave AndruskoEditor's note. For more information on Dr. Denise Faustman's research and the effort of the Iacocca Foundation to raise money to support it, please go to http://www.joinleenow.org. To most Americans, the enduring image of Lee Iacocca is of the charismatic head of the Chrysler Corporation during the 1980s. His role as philanthropist is much less well known.Iacocca's wife, Mary, died of complications from Type I diabetes 21 years ago. Following her death, as Iacocca has said many times, "my family and I began...

The slick Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International flyer that appeared in Sunday newspapers throughout the country showed a little girl on monkey bars with her hand just inches from the next bar. "The cure is so close we can almost touch it," her accompanying mother says. Likewise, JDRF Chairwoman Mary Tyler Moore proclaimed in a recent TV commercial, "We are so close to finding a cure." So wrong. JDRF is the world's largest juvenile diabetes philanthropy, distributing over $85 million in grants last year. Yet it supports no efforts that could lead to a cure any time soon for this...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version August 16, 2004, 8:25 a.m. A Stem-Cell DefectionA congressman educates. Carl Kallsen of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has two granddaughters with Type I diabetes: Kendall, 6, and Kelsea, 13. After they were diagnosed, he got involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In the campaign for expanded federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, few organizations have been more active in public than the JDRF. Earlier this year, Kallsen told the JDRF that he was taking his family to Washington, D.C. The family wanted to meet with their...