I received the normal JDRF research newsletter the other day. As usual, I perused the updates on diabetes. There was a large article on the new stem cell legislation movement, but I quickly passed over it. But two articles did catch my eye.

One was regarding "Insulin Fragment" Therapy, which I hadn't heard about before this newsletter. A study from the UK showed that "proinsulin peptide" therapy could seemingly restore the immune system without any adverse side effects (like the immunotherapy treatments for pancreas and cell transplants). More research had to be done, but it was still an important milestone.

The other article had to do with protein regeneration for adult beta cells. It was a snippet of an article regarding the prospect of regeneration and replication of beta cells for type 1s. All it did was leave hope. Hope for regrowth. Hope for a life without diabetes.

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"So, Charlie, did you hear? Scientists are working on a possible cure for diabetes that could come from testicles?"

"Huh? The what?"

"You don’t know what your testicles are?"

"Uh uh."

"You know. It’s your, uh …

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Much buzz has been going around the diabetes community about the recent announcement of the JDRF/Animas partnership to develop a "first generation artificial pancreas", and rightly so. The ability to eat like a "normal person", to not have to worry about debilitating highs and lows, to be able to sleep without fear of not waking up again... these are things which are, quoth Hamlet, "devoutly to be wish'd". That the road between here and there is not so simple a passage as we might hope, is well-known, and much littered with papers sporting words like "cure", "encapsulation", "transplant", "gene therapy", and -- of course -- "artificial pancreas". (READ MORE)