BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Science & Research

LCT’s DIABECELL® Registered for Sale and Use in Russia

Nic — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:51:23 +0000

Hi everyone – this just hot off the press from an email I just received from Living Cell Technologies, which is the company doing pig cell trials in NZ under Professor Bob Elliot. This is pretty big news! Press release dropped in verbatim, below…

Company Announcement10 December 2010 – Sydney, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand– Living Cell Technologies Limited (ASX: LCT; OTCQX: LVCLY), a global company pioneering the development of cell implants to treat diabetes, announced today that its Russian subsidiary, LCT Biomedical Limited, has received registration of the Company’s groundbreaking diabetes treatment, DIABECELL, as a marketable medical technology in Russia. Registration allows for the sale and use of the DIABECELL technology in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes in…

Aaron: It’s Dad’s fault.

Aaron — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:00:10 +0000

I was perusing the annals of the internet last week and saw this article on Stuff.co.nz about how scientists have research indicating that fathers with high fat diets may be a cause of diabetes in their daughters?

You can read the full article here.

Seriously, I am all for research and understanding the causes and contributing factors behind T1 but come on, isn’t this a little ridiculous? It feels like there are all sorts of links between so many different conditions (white bread and cancer is one I hear often) and they just keep coming. Certainly, there are links between food and lifestyle which it is essential to know about for preventative measures but I can’t help…

Thursday Poll: Are we behind the eight ball?

Aaron — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:00:05 +0000

I dunno about you guys but when I was a kid (less so as an adult now) I got the distinct feeling that here in NZ, we were very, very behind in the treatments, technologies and knowledge from a diabetes perspective.

Lantus has only just been subsidized in NZ compared to at least 6 years ago in Europe, we didn’t seem to get blood testers anywhere near as fast as North America or even Australia did and Analog insulins had to be fought hard for back in the 1990’s so that we had the luxury of not having to wait for 30 minutes after taking a dose of Actrapid which along with monotard was pretty much the only choice of treatment I…

Aaron: The Finesse ‘Patch Pen’. Insulin Pump meets pen?

Aaron — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:00:22 +0000

I was writing some posts today and as I punched the keys I spotted twitter in the top corner of my screen with news from DiabetesMine about a new development in insulin delivery that has just been approved by the FDA (or Federal Drug Administration of America which is their PHARMAC).

I had a read and thought it worthy of a mention.

The full article can be read here but for those of you that don’t have time to read it (it’s short!) here is the essential gist of it all:

It’s being described as a ‘Patch pump’ Extremely small at only a few centimeters Contains a 200 unit reservoir of insulin (the same an the

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Aaron: The first insulin

Aaron — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:29:51 +0000

This post is thanks directly to a comment made by Sarah on Nic’s post from a couple of weeks ago so I take no credit for discovering it or for writing it because I’m just paraphrasing!

In any case, it was a very interesting and well written/researched article published by the NY times about an exhibition taking place at the New York Historical Society regarding the history of insulin, but more specifically focusing on it’s actual invention, the first patients to receive it, and the behind the scenes story of it all.

As I said, the article is very well written, complete with a great description of the difference between T1 and T2 so that people are clear that…

Aaron: Avandia recalled in the UK and EU

Aaron — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:50:28 +0000

There were several articles on the news this week in Canada covering the withdrawal of the drug Avandia (generic name for the drug is rosiglitazone) from the UK and it’s heavy restriction in the USA following some research showing negative side affects of the drug, an oral medication taken by an estimated 2,000,000 people globally.

The reason for the removal of the drug from the UK market has been sited as being because of links between it “raised risks of heart attacks and heart failure” according this BBC article on the subject from 23rd September. The drug also appears to be being withdrawn from the European market due to the same fears.

In America though, the Food and…

5 reasons T1 is on the rise…

Nic — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:29:10 +0000

This article came via email in my inbox a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was pretty interesting. Not sure all of the reasons are viable nor proven, but interesting for discussion.

This is what it said:

A 2009 study in The Lancet found that new cases of type 1 diabetes in kids could double in the next 10 years. Possible reasons for this dramatic rise include:

1. Too big too fast. The “accelerator hypothesis” theorizes that children who are bigger and grow more quickly are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes.
2. Too little sun. The “sunshine hypothesis” comes from data showing that countries situated closer to the equator have lower rates of type 1…

Type 1 and coeliac.

Nic — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:00:24 +0000

I had someone contact me last week on behalf of a woman who had just been diagnosed with coeliac (wheat/gluten intolerance) on top of having Type 1. Boooo hiss. Totally not fair. I remember being at kids camp a couple of years ago and there were several kids there who had the two. Camp were brilliantly prepared, often with two different queues for kids with “just” T1 and those with coeliac as well. I also remember Elissa Renouf at DYNZ conference last year saying that a couple of her kids have both and they have to have special gluten free jellybeans for hypos – gah!

Apart from “they’re both auto-immune conditions”, I…

An end to finger pricking?

Nic — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:45:52 +0000

I see that Reuters (and many other sites) have reported that an implant has been tested in pigs which measures and transmits blood glucose levels wirelessly. It’s not exactly mentioned where ultimately this would be transmitted to, but there is a mention of cellphones.

Apparently this has been tested in pigs and worked in one for a year, the other for ten months – wahey! The not-so-wahey bit is that the implant is actually 3.8 by 12.7 cm – where on earth are they implanting that puppy?! Crikey!

I have to say though I love the sound of this, taking the CGMS to the next level – no regular changeovers of sensors, no chance sensors can fall out, and no…

Aaron: How do they even do it?

Aaron — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:23:01 +0000

At the risk of sounding like a TV game show host or a question card from Trivial Pursuit – how do they make insulin?

It’s a question that I found myself asking the other day when I was reading the label of my Novorapid vial which says;

“The active substance in Novorapid is insulin aspart produced by biotechnology. Novorapid contains the following other substances: Glycerol, Phenol, Metacresol, Zinc Chloride, Disodium phosphate dihydrate, Sodium Hydroxide, Hydrochloric acid and Water for injections”.

It’s quite amazing when I think about it but I have absolutely no idea how insulin is made these days! I’m imagining labs filled with all sorts of technology and I did manage the find the image you can see…