Diabetes Research at BCM
The biomedical research base for BCM's Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center consists of 57 researchers in 10 different departments. Research covers Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes at all stages in life.
- Researchers have developed a new gene therapy that induces the formation of new islets, the insulin production factory in the body, in the livers of diabetic mice. These islets produce enough insulin to maintain a normal blood sugar level and reverse diabetes in these animals. Eventually, researchers hope this can be translated into a cure for Type 1 diabetes in humans.
- At BCM's Behavioral Medicine Research Center, researchers conduct projects to look at the long-term health effects of weight loss in those who are overweight and have Type 2 diabetes. Researchers for the Look AHEAD project observe the impacts of lifestyle counseling, changing patients' diets, and a diabetes education and support program on patients' long-term health.
- Through a program with the Harris County Hospital District, BCM researchers are investigating novel forms of diabetes characterized by severe defects in the way the pancreas secretes insulin. These studies are helping to reclassify diabetes and identify new causes of pancreatic malfunction.
- The USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at BCM in conjunction with Texas Children's Hospital is participating in an NIH-funded study, called HEALTHY. The project promotes changes to school cafeteria food options and physical education programs as well as promoting healthy behaviors. They hope it will lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes in school children.
- Through a program called Choosing Health and Sensible Exercise (CHASE), supported in part by the American Diabetes Association, members of BCM's department of family and community medicine teach overweight children and adolescents 6 to 17 years of age and their families about lifestyle principles, nutrition and exercise that will prevent further weight gain. They hope the eight week course will lower the risk of developing diabetes.
- BCM's Center for Research on Women with Disabilities studies the high risk of developing diabetes among women with disabilities since the disease is highly correlated with lack of mobility.
- At the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor, researchers are looking at diabetes in the aging and elderly population.
A list of current diabetes studies at BCM can be found at www.bcm.edu/clinicalstudies/?PMID=7211.