DRC & Research News

This page shares the latest news in T1D research and DRC’s community.

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C.C. King Photo

DRC in the Community: President and Chair, C.C. King’s Presentation on Insights into Medical Research

On Monday, May 23rd, DRC’s President and Chair, C.C. King, Ph.D., spoke at Del Mar Foundation’s speaker series, DMFTalks. Over 30 members of the community came to listen to C.C. talk about the importance of medical research. His talk addressed the importance of medical research. He began by sharing the process of approving medication through the FDA and how in-depth that procedure can take. This transitioned into the significance of model systems in three categories; Cancer, the self, and Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). In researching human disease, model organisms allow for a better understanding of the disease process without the added risk of harming an actual human. By the end of the presentation, he illustrated how Diabetes Research Connection (DRC) is a vital organization that funds early-career scientists who have bold and out-of-the-box ideas without the years of experience that other researchers have, therefore often don’t receive the funding necessary to make headway with their research. DRC is an organization that proudly acts as the seed funding for many of these projects, allowing them to gain momentum and credibility to help them receive larger grants to bolster their research. Many of these projects use model systems to help validate their hypotheses and have often received follow-on funding from the results they have garnered and have made headway in T1D research.

Click HERE to watch C.C.’s presentation!

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Connecting for a cure DRC

CONNECTING FOR A CURE: June 2022 Newsletter

DRC has distributed over $400,000 to research projects like Dr. Dwyer’s and Dr. Zhu’s in Request for Application (RFA) 2 2021 alone. We received an unprecedented number of Letters of Interest (LOIs) in our last RFA and are funding even more innovative projects than ever. View our “Support a Project” page to see what other research projects we are currently committed to funding by clicking here. Take a look at our latest newsletter, where we feature some quotes from our newest grant recipients, show DRC in the community, and highlight our newest volunteers.

Click this link to view our June newsletter that we mailed out previously this month about what we’ve been up to and the impact we are making together. It takes a community to connect for a cure!

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Diabetes Research

Diabetes Research Connection Awards $400,000 to Eight Promising T1D Studies

After rigorous peer review by DRC’s Scientific Review Committee, eight early-career researchers were awarded $50,000, totaling $400,000 in seed funding for their work to find the cause, treatment, and cure for T1D. 

Click HERE to read the Press Release

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OUR PROJECTS

See our approved research projects and campaigns.

Role of the integrated stress response in type 1 diabetes pathogenesis
In individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D), the insulin-producing beta cells are spontaneously destroyed by their own immune system. The trigger that provokes the immune system to destroy the beta cells is unknown. However, accumulating evidence suggest that signals are perhaps first sent out by the stressed beta cells that eventually attracts the immune cells. Stressed cells adapt different stress mitigation systems as an adaptive response. However, when these adaptive responses go awry, it results in cell death. One of the stress response mechanisms, namely the integrated stress response (ISR) is activated under a variety of stressful stimuli to promote cell survival. However, when ISR is chronically activated, it can be damaging to the cells and can lead to cell death. The role of the ISR in the context of T1D is unknown. Therefore, in this DRC funded study, we propose to study the ISR in the beta cells to determine its role in propagating T1D.
Wearable Skin Fluorescence Imaging Patch for the Detection of Blood Glucose Level on an Engineered Skin Platform
zhang
A Potential Second Cure for T1D by Re-Educating the Patient’s Immune System
L Ferreira
Validating the Hypothesis to Cure T1D by Eliminating the Rejection of Cells From Another Person by Farming Beta Cells From a Patient’s Own Stem Cells
Han Zhu
Taming a Particularly Lethal Category of Cells May Reduce/Eliminate the Onset of T1D
JRDwyer 2022 Lab 1
Can the Inhibition of One Specific Body Gene Prevent Type 1 Diabetes?
Melanie
Is Cholesterol Exacerbating T1D by Reducing the Functionality and Regeneration Ability of Residual Beta Cells?
Regeneration Ability of Residual Beta Cells
A Call to Question… Is T1D Caused by Dysfunctionality of Two Pancreatic Cells (β and α)?
Xin Tong
Novel therapy initiative with potential path to preventing T1D by targeting TWO components of T1D development (autoimmune response and beta-cell survival)
flavia pecanha