Research on diabetes
Some 250 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. What progress is medical research making in the fight against this widespread disease?
They are tiny, but enormously important: the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas produce insulin, a chemical messenger that is vital to the human organism. Without it glucose cannot be transformed into glycogen – and the result is diabetes. The islets of Langerhans do not only contain beta cells, but also other cell types. Together, they keep the body’s metabolic functions running and also influence cell renewal.
Stephan Speier, a researcher at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at Dresden University of Technology, is focusing on this complex subject. Together with his team, he is investigating the biology and regeneration mechanisms of the islet cells and examining ways of using his findings for therapeutic purposes. In recognition of his ground-breaking studies, the German Diabetes Society (DDG) has honoured the expert with the 2013 Ernst Friedrich Pfeiffer Prize. Speier, who was born in 1973, studied human biology at Marburg University before completing a doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. In 2009, after a number of years researching at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, he moved to the CRTD, where he heads a research group working on islet cell regeneration.
In autumn 2013, Freiburg-based researcher Andrew Pospisilik was honoured with the European Rising Star Award at the Conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Barcelona. Pospisilik, who was born in Canada, and Tess Lu, his doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, have found signs that type 2 diabetes is partially caused by insulin cells losing their epigenetic memory – and, as a result, their function.
World Diabetes Day on 14 November
