News Article

A recent study involving a previously unstudied gene known as Rfx6 has shown how this gene is necessary for cells to differentiate into insulin-producing beta cells and other cells in the pancreas.  This study was led by Michael German, MD , Diabetes Center Clinical Director and the Justine K. Schreyer Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research, and his colleague Constantin Polychronakos, MD, of McGill University.  Dr.

It is hard to believe that a single patient can lead to new insights into autoimmune disease that merit publication in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) . In a recent Letter to the Editor in the journal, our DC investigators report the case of a patient seen at the San Francisco General Hospital with symptoms of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 (APS1). APS1 is a disease characterized by multiple autoimmune disorders, often including type 1 diabetes.

At the 7th World Congress on Insulin Resistance , researchers from the UCSF Diabetes Center received awards for their new research involving insulin resistance.  Sinan Tanyolac, MD, a UCSF visiting scholar from Istanbul University who works closely with Diabetes Center researchers Ira Goldfine, MD and John Kane, M

Bay area employers are concerned about the rising incidence of diabetes in today's society.  One of three families are affected by diabetes or at risk for contracting this disease.  Providing education on diabetes prevention, warning signs, common myths, and general treatment options is vitally important to keep staff healthy and happy.  As a public service to the local business community, the UCSF Diabetes Teaching Center has launched a program offering free, one hour diabetes group instruction to employees.  These informational s

Since March is National Kidney Month and March 11, 2010 is officially World Kidney Day, we'd like to acknowledge the tremendous success of our UCSF Transplantation Program .  UCSF has performed more kidney transplants than any other institution in the world — more than 8,300 since 1964 — and is the fifth largest center for living-donor kidney transplants in the country.  Each year, the transplant team

What better way to describe the clinical trial experience than through the eyes of a study participant?  In this month's Popular Science magazine, journalist Catherine Price writes about her experience in a new-onset type 1 diabetes clinical study involving the monoclonal antibody anti-CD3.  Not only does Catherine's story, Rebooting the Body, chronicle the long history of this research led by UCSF's

It is hard to believe that we are just days away from the end of the decade, and nearly ten years since the founding of the UCSF Diabetes Center. I am grateful for the progress we continue to make toward preventing, treating and ultimately curing diabetes.  

Within the last year, one of our type 1 diabetes clinical trials involving an effective cancer drug concluded.  Results published in November 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) shows that anti-CD20 (FDA approved and marketed as Rituxan) has been shown to be effective in new onset diabetes by slowing down the progression of the disease.  Not only is it exciting that this drug appears to have a therapeutic effect, it also clearly shows that another immune cell besides the T cell -- the B cell -- is critical in diabetes development.&nb

Three Diabetes Center affiliated researchers are featured in a recent issue of Forefront magazine , a publication of the American Diabetes Association (ADA).  Robert Farese Jr., MD, a senior scientist at the UCSF Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, is studying the biology of fat storage.  In this Forefront article (pages 7-9), Dr.

In conjunction with last month's National Diabetes Month, KPIX CBS 5 in San Francisco spotlighted the work of the Diabetes Center at UCSF.  On November 10th, CBS 5 Healthwatch Doctor Kim Mulvihill, MD discussed an experimental drug called anti-CD3 and how it may stop beta cell destruction in type 1 diabetes.  [ anti-CD3 news story ]   On November 18th, a second story aired that addressed the question, "Are We Too Clean For Our Own Good?"  In this story, Dr.