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JDRF, University of Michigan partner on type 1 diabetes beta-cell project
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The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation will partner with the Brehm Center at the University of Michigan to explore the decline of beta cells, according to a press release.
Although it is believed that beta-cell death causes the loss of function, this 2-year collaboration will work under the hypothesis that it is a regression into a less mature state in which the cells no longer effectively produce insulin.
“Working with the Brehm Coalition allows us to look at this fundamental question about how type 1 diabetes develops from multiple perspectives simultaneously,” David Wheadon, JDRF executive vice president of research and advocacy, said in the press release. “Bringing together immunology, beta-cell biology, and both basic and clinical research helps to ensure that the research can move as quickly as possible, and that the discoveries made will be relevant and translatable to individuals with type 1 diabetes. If beta cells remain alive but regress in people with type 1 diabetes, there would be a paradigm shift in our understanding of how beta cells are affected by the disease process. Answering this key translational question could open up new therapeutic strategies for preserving and restoring the insulin-producing capacity of beta cells in people at all stages of the disease.”
The Brehm Center has previously studied living, but immature, beta cells in animal models of diabetes. Eight scientists from seven universities will be working on the new project.
“These scientists concluded in 2007, when they formed the Brehm Coalition, that medical research could be significantly accelerated by adopting a pattern of intimate collaboration in which they would work across traditional institutional boundaries rather than be constrained by them, sharing their data, their successes, and their failures as the research effort proceeded,” Dorene Markel, Brehm Center director and coalition coordinator, said in the press release. “Moreover, they would also be able to share the critical resources and infrastructure of the several universities involved, thereby taking advantage of the combined strengths of these institutions. Having JDRF as a key partner takes the collaboration to a new level, and we anticipate this joint project will not only advance science, but will serve as a demonstration of how team science can be done most effectively.”
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation restoration project.