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Elevated levels of three specific circulating proteins are associated with protection against kidney failure in diabetes, according to research from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

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Scientists are rapidly gathering evidence that variants of gut microbiomes, the collections of bacteria and other microbes in our digestive systems, may play harmful roles in diabetes and other diseases.

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A new source of energy expending brown fat cells has been uncovered by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center, which they say points towards potential new therapeutic options for obesity. According to the new report, published in Nature Metabolism >on 12 March 2021, the key lies in the expression of a receptor called Trpv1 (temperature-sensitive ion channel transient receptor potential cation subfamily V member 1) -- a protein known to sense noxious stimuli, including pain and temperature.

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BOSTON – (March 25, 2021) – A mechanism has been identified that explains how physical exercise in pregnancy confers metabolic health benefits in offspring. According to researchers, the key lies with a protein called SOD3, vitamin D and adequate exercise, with the outcomes possibly forming the first steps to designing rational diet and exercise programs to use during pregnancy and particularly when mothers may also be overweight or obese.

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In older people with type 1 diabetes, damage to the retina may be linked to memory problems and other cognitive conditions.BOSTON – (December 31, 2020) – As they age, people with diabetes are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive disorders than are people without diabetes. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center now have shown that routine eye imaging can identify changes in the retina that may be associated with cognitive disorders in older people with type 1 diabetes.

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BOSTON – (December 16, 2020) – Intensive interventions to reduce blood glucose and blood pressure levels in type 2 diabetes reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN), a frequent but underdiagnosed complication of diabetes that can be life-threatening. In a study led by Alessandro Doria , MD, PhD, MPH, from the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, and Rodica Pop Busui, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan, published online in Diabetes Care , researchers found that intensive glycemic control reduced CAN risk by 17%, while intensive blood pressure control reduced risks by 22%.

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A lipid metabolite called 12,13-diHOME has been identified in human breast milk and appears to be associated with beneficial infant weight gain and body Study suggests that when new mothers exercise, they likely improve newborn’s longer term metabolic health.

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Researchers have developed a novel ‘disease-in-a-dish’ model to study the basic molecular factors that lead to the development of type 2 diabetes, uncovering the potential existence of major signaling defects both inside and outside of the classical insulin signaling cascade, and providing new perspectives on the mechanisms behind insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and possibly opportunities for the development of novel therapeutics for the disease.

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A potential therapy for obesity would transplant HUMBLE (human brown-like) fat cells, human white fat cells that have been genetically modified using CRISPR to become similar to heat-generating brown fat cells.

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Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered that some benefits of aerobic exercise may be dampened by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, and that this is independent of obesity and insulin levels in the blood.

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Largest US database of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes provides a first-time, big picture view of mother’s health, and neonatal and delivery outcomes. The analysis found a threefold increase in insulin pump use at the end of the study period, compared to the start of the study, but A1c levels remained steady across the 13-year period. Over time the study showed a trend toward pre-pregnancy obesity and unhealthy maternal weight gain.

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Historically, half or more of people with type 1 diabetes develop kidney disease, which frequently progresses to kidney failure requiring hemodialysis or a kidney transplant for survival. Progression of kidney disease in type 1 diabetes is correlated with increased amounts of uric acid. A multi-institution randomized clinical trial of a drug used to control uric acid did not show the desired clinical benefits, but did give a very clear answer to an important scientific question.

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Fewer than one in five adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes are successful in achieving the recommended 2019 A1C goal of below 7.5%, and the overwhelming majority fail to achieve the 2020 target of less than 7%. But young people who use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices can significantly improve their overall blood glucose control, without increasing severe low or high glucose levels, according to findings from a 6-month, multi-center clinical trial. And both severe hypoglycemia (low glucose) and hyperglycemia (high glucose) can lead to emergency care and hospitalization.

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This study provides a wealth of new data showing how beta cells behave at slightly raised levels of blood glucose - still within the pre-diabetes range. The work provides major additional evidence of a “glucose toxicity” effect that helps to drive the development of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

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Fatty liver disease not associated with alcohol consumption, which is called Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease or NAFLD, affects more than one billion people worldwide. Even in children the numbers are overwhelming, with up to 80 percent of pediatric patients who are considered obese affected worldwide. People with NAFLD can progress to a severe form known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which puts patients at higher risk for cirrhosis or liver cancer.

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There's a higher case fatality rate in type 1 than type 2 diabetes, which suggests different mechanisms for heart failure might be involved in type 1 diabetes.” Given the burden of heart failure in type 1 diabetes, the early identification of patients at particular risk is of importance.

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Joslin researchers have found a pathway that can boost the production of (heat-generating, fat-burning) brown fat cells without also creating unhelpful white fat cells. This finding suggests that the pathway the Joslin team uncovered might offer a solution to that challenge.

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Diabetic retinopathy can be diagnosed and graded with the use of a newer scanning technology called ultra-wide field (UWF) imaging, a system that generates high-quality pictures showing most of the retina. Research from the Joslin Diabetes Center’s Beetham Eye Institute has now shown that one technique, UFW fluorescein angiography, detects over three times more microaneurysms than UWF color imaging

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Post-bariatric hypoglycemia is a profoundly life-altering condition for patients. Having unpredictable hypoglycemia that people can't detect is really an unsafe situation. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a closed-loop system that automatically provides patients with an appropriate, as-needed dose of liquid glucagon to treat this condition.

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A multi-center randomized clinical trial evaluating a new artificial pancreas system — which automatically monitors and regulates blood glucose levels — has found that the new system was more effective than existing treatments at controlling blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes.The study showed that the system improved participants’ blood glucose control throughout the day and overnight.

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Digital diabetes management systems (“connected diabetes care”) have the potential to become part of a new diabetes care model, augmenting the traditional practice of diabetes care by providing continuous and on-demand assistance that aligns with the 24/7 demands of diabetes as a chronic disease.

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BOSTON – (October 1, 2019) – Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have found that high levels of fructose in the diet inhibit the liver’s ability to properly metabolize fat. This effect is specific to fructose. Indeed, equally high levels of glucose in the diet actually improve the fat-burning function of the liver. This explains why high dietary fructose has more negative health impacts than glucose does, even though they have the same caloric content.

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BOSTON – (July 29, 2019) – Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have unlocked the key to clearly identifying diseased beta cells in type 2 diabetes. This discovery has both research and therapeutic implications.Studies of diabetes rely on the ability of researchers to sort diseased cells from healthy cells.

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Ann Lagasse, principal at Ocean's Havens, LLC, of Newburyport, MA, has been elected to be the next chair of the Joslin Diabetes Center Board of Trustees.

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Martin Pasqualini, Managing Director of the CGA Group, has been elected to the Board of Trustees of Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

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Susan Dacey, CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors for Industrial Polymers and Chemicals, Inc. has been elected to the Joslin Board of Trustees.

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Todd Abbrecht, Head of Private Equity at Thomas H. Lee Partners, has been elected to its Board of Trustees of the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

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Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is paying tribute to the late Lee Iacocca, who passed away on July 2, at age 94. Mr. Iacocca was a generous supporter of research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.

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Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that a protein found in the eye can protect against and potentially treat diabetic eye disease. At high enough levels, Retinol Binding Protein 3 (or RBP3) prevents the development of diabetic retinopathy. If introduced early enough in the development of the disease, RBP3 was shown to reverse the effects of the complication in rodent models of diabetes.

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BOSTON — (July 2, 2019) — A Joslin Diabetes Center study among people treated for type 1 diabetes for many years has discovered that a minority may have monogenic diabetes, a non-autoimmune inherited condition that in some cases does not require insulin treatment. “Our finding has clinical implications,” says George L. King, MD, Joslin Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, and senior author on a paper describing the work published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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BOSTON – (June 28, 2019 – Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center have been selected by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) as one of 38 collaborative science teams that will launch CZI’s Seed Networks for a Human Cell Atlas projects.These collaborative groups will bring together scientists, computational biologists, software engineers, and physicians to support the continued development of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA), an international effort to map all cells in the human body.

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BOSTON – (June 24, 2019) -- New research has identified a type of bacteria found in the microbiomes of elite athletes that contributes to improved capacity for exercise. These bacteria, members of the genus Veillonella, are not found in the guts of sedentary people. By taking a closer look at the bacteria, the researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center determined Veillonella metabolizes lactic acid produced by exercise and converts it into propionate, a short chain fatty acid.

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BOSTON – (June 11, 2019) – Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center, using a genome-wide association study, have identified a genetic factor linked to the development of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. This finding suggests a new target for preventive therapies. The research has been published online and will appear in the August print issue of Diabetes.

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Research from Joslin Diabetes Center has shown in mice that insulin resistance increases the proportion of aged beta-cells which are dysfunction. Such an increase in aged beta-cells could lead to type 2 diabetes. These researchers confirmed similarly increased proportion of aged beta-cells in islets recovered from humans with type2 diabetes.

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BOSTON -- (May 13, 2019) -- A new study from Joslin Diabetes Center has proven that certain biological protective factors play a large role in preventing diabetic kidney disease in certain people. The study was published today in Diabetes Care. This study built on the findings from a 2017 Joslin Medalist Study of protective factors and diabetic kidney disease (or DKD).

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Researchers at Joslin have found that increasing the proliferation and turnover of beta cells before signs of type 1 diabetes could halt the development of the disease.

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BOSTON – (April 29, 2019) – Newly available results will influence the standard approach for treating diabetic macular edema in patients with good vision, thanks to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was conducted by the DRCR Retina Network, a multicenter clinical research network funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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BOSTON – (April 22, 2019) -- In a breakthrough study published today in Nature Medicine, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a group of 17 circulating inflammatory proteins that are consistently associated with the development and progression of diabetic kidney disease. These 17 proteins, called the Kidney Risk Inflammatory Signature (KRIS), could allow doctors to determine the risk of progression to end stage renal disease in a patient with diabetic kidney disease.

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BOSTON – (April 10, 2019) -- New research suggests the composition of breast milk in normal weight mothers differs from that of overweight mothers, and that variations in small molecule metabolites found in breast milk are possible risk factors for childhood obesity. The new research is published online in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.