Explore more about: Diabetes

The qualities of flowing blood, or hemodynamics, hold important insights into vascular diseases, but technological limitations have largely kept measurements of these properties out of reach in the clinic. Now, there may be a potential solution on the horizon.

Frequent insulin injections are an unpleasant reality for many patients with type 1 diabetes. However, new technology could create a different reality for these patients.

Researchers have long recognized the therapeutic potential of using magnetoelectrics ⎯ materials that can turn magnetic fields into electric fields ⎯ to stimulate neural tissue in a minimally invasive way and help treat neurological disorders or nerve damage. A Rice University led team have designed the first magnetoelectric material that can be used to precisely stimulate neurons remotely and to bridge the gap in a broken sciatic nerve in a rat model.  Source: Rice University

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing lipid nanoparticles that are designed to carry mRNA specifically to the pancreas. Their study in mice could pave the way for novel therapies for intractable pancreatic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer.

In a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers demonstrated that human kidney organoids are useful models to identify the point of permanent and reversible kidney cell damage and they also discovered a drug candidate that could potentially prevent chronic disease before reaching that point. Read more at STAT.

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a robotic pill that, after swallowing, can deliver biologic drugs into the stomach, which could provide an alternative method for self-injection for a wide range of therapies.

The human body can be genetically inclined to attack its own cells, destroying the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin, which helps convert sugar into energy. Called Type 1 diabetes, this disorder can occur at any age and can be fatal if not carefully managed with insulin shots or an insulin pump to balance the body's sugar levels.

A Rice University bioengineer and her Brown School of Engineering team were awarded an NIH grant to create gene activity sensors and activators that hold unmatched potential for the treatment of infectious diseases, diabetes, genetic disorders, and cancer. Source: AZO Life Sciences

NIBIB-funded engineers have developed a flexible epidermal patch that can simultaneously and continuously monitor cardiac output and metabolic levels of glucose, lactate, caffeine, or alcohol. The patch is a major step towards continuous non-invasive health monitoring.

Sickle cell disease is the most prevalent inherited blood disorder in the world, affecting 70,000 to 100,000 Americans. However, it is considered an orphan disease, meaning it impacts less than 200,000 people nationally, and is therefore underrepresented in therapeutic research.