Results tagged “diabetes”

Beaker Hill’s bureau at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute has picked up on another major breakthrough…or maybe we read about it in the Washington Post. Those tricky HSCI guys threw a curve ball this time, though, because this work did not actually involve stem cells at all! Instead, researchers Doug Melton and Qiao “Joe” Zhou were able to take a common type of mouse cell and, using some chemical wizardry, converted them into the mouse’s beta cells, which produce insulin. This cellular alchemy will directly aid in treatments for diabetes (somewhere, Wilford Brimley is throwing a party*), and much sooner than may be expected. Melton hopes that trials involving diabetic individuals can start as soon as within the next five years, and no doubt other scientists will look for similar cell conversions in the treatment of other diseases. The Harvard paper was published on the 27th in the online edition of Nature.