Content provided in partnership with

Business Services Industry

Digital Gene Technologies and Joslin Diabetes Center Launch Study to Identify Genes in Type 2 Diabetes

Business Wire, July 18, 2000

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--July 18, 2000

Digital Gene Technologies Inc. (DGT), the La Jolla-based total gene expression company, today announced that the Joslin Diabetes Center, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, will use DGT's patented TOGA(TM) gene expression profiling technology in a ground-breaking investigation of type 2 diabetes.

The research will be directed by C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., president of the Joslin Diabetes Center, head of the section on cellular and molecular physiology and Mary K. Iacocca, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, who will be joined in the study by co-investigators Mary-Elizabeth Patti, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Allison B. Goldfine, M.D., instructor in medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Most Popular Articles in Business: Research and Markets : Tesco Plc - SWOT Framework Analysis; Do Us a Flavor - Ben & Jerry's Issues a Call for Euphoric New Flavors; eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? These 5 simple steps will ...; Katrina's lawsuit surge: a legal battle to force insurers to pay for flood ...; Wal-Mart's newest distribution center opened last month near the southwest ...; More »

"Dr. Kahn and his colleagues are recognized among the world's foremost experts in the field of diabetes research and we are honored to have them and the Joslin Diabetes Center join our growing list of academic collaborators," said Robert J. Sutcliffe, president and CEO. "This important research application for a disease of increasing concern to our society highlights the role of DGT's academic collaboration program in providing outstanding scientists with access to TOGA(TM) in order to accelerate their discovery effort in areas of critical unmet medical need."

Dr. Kahn's project, which will focus on the genes responsible for onset and reversal of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes, is the 15th academic collaboration announced by DGT since the program was inaugurated in April 1998.

"DGT's remarkable TOGA(TM) technology offers us the capacity to evaluate changes in gene expression which occur during pharmacologic therapy required in patients with uncontrolled diabetes," commented Dr. Kahn. "Aided by the proprietary bioinformatics data analysis tools that rapidly integrate TOGA(TM) data and discoveries with the wealth of information being developed by other researchers, we believe we will gain insights into the pathophysiology of insulin resistance that simply cannot be obtained in any other way."

More than 16 million Americans have diabetes, a group of serious diseases characterized by high blood sugar levels that result from defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. Diabetes can lead to severely debilitating or fatal complications, such as blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and amputations. It is the sixth-leading cause of death by disease in the U.S., where it annually accounts for over $90 billion in health care expenditures.

Type 2 diabetes (formerly called non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset diabetes) usually arises because of insulin resistance, in which the body fails to use insulin properly, combined with some level of insulin deficiency. It typically occurs in those over 45 and overweight, although an increasing number of children and teenagers around the world are developing it due to obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

While major improvements in prevention, diagnosis and therapy for diabetes have been accomplished, the underlying genetic and metabolic etiology of type 2 diabetes remain undefined. Skeletal muscle appears to be the primary site of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes, accounting for more than 75 percent of the defect in insulin-mediated glucose disposal, and, importantly, is the primary abnormality detected in normoglycemic offspring of diabetic parents who subsequently develop diabetes. However, the cellular mechanisms responsible for this underlying insulin resistance remain unknown.

Dr. Kahn's project will utilize DGT's TOGA(TM) gene expression profiling technology to specifically evaluate changes in gene expression which occur during treatment with rosiglitazone, a potent glucose-lowering agent in the thiazolidinedione family of drugs, whose cellular mechanism of action is unknown. While rosiglitazone improves skeletal muscle glucose disposal, it is unclear whether this is a direct effect on skeletal muscle itself or a secondary phenomenon.

The study will involve patients with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 18 and 60 who have been previously treated with diet and exercise alone, but who now require pharmacologic therapy due to uncontrolled diabetes. Clinical improvement in insulin resistance and diabetes control will be analyzed for each patient and utilized to help identify those changes in gene expression which are correlated well with therapeutic responses, with the ultimate goal of developing an effective gene-based drug therapy.

DGT has previously announced collaboration projects with the laboratories of Dr. Peter K. Vogt of The Scripps Research Institute, studying the earliest stages in the development of cancer; Dr. Inder Verma of The Salk Institute, focusing on genes regulated by the BRCA1 gene and linked to an inherited form of breast cancer; Dr. Carrolee Barlow of The Salk Institute, investigating the expression pattern of the ATM gene associated with Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) or Louis Bar Syndrome, with additional applications in cancer models; and Dr. Ralf Janknecht of the Mayo Medical School, identifying target genes implicated in breast and ovarian cancer, and in Ewing's sarcoma.

Business Services Industry

Digital Gene Technologies and Joslin Diabetes Center Launch Study to Identify Genes in Type 2 Diabetes

Business Wire, July 18, 2000

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Business

Most Popular Publications in Business