Karolinska Institute: “As the incidence of type 2 diabetes rises around the world,
we need to find new strategies for understanding, preventing and
treating this serious, chronic disease,” says conference co-arranger
Professor
Anna Krook at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of
Physiology and Pharmacology. “Large data sets, or Big Data, can help us
understand how genes and environment interact,
giving rise to possibilities for personalised intervention strategies
.”
Most people who develop
type 2 diabetes are never cured
and have to live with chronic type 2 diabetes.
Prediabetes is a precursor of diabetes found in many people before the
diagnosis and as we will hear from Steven E. Kahn from the University of
Washington, USA, early intervention can prevent its development into
full-blown diabetes.
In recent years, several new drugs for type 2
diabetes have appeared with mechanisms of action that differ from
previous therapies. What can we expect next? Maybe an attempt to rescue
the beta cells that otherwise suffer burnout as diabetes progresses?
This and other conceivable approaches for the future will be addressed
by
Debbie C. Thurmond from the
Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, USA.
Hunger, the drive to eat, obesity and diabetes will be linked during a presentation by
Scott M. Sternson from the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
. He
investigates
exactly which brain cells are engaged in the sensation of hunger.
Joseph Takahashi from the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center, USA, is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of
the circadian rhythm, how it operates in different tissues and how its
disruption can lead to disease
.
Sex and sex hormones have a considerable impact on
how diabetes develops, but so far science has not paid this much
attention, reasons Deborah Clegg from the
Cedars-Sinai Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute, USA.
Sex-based research and the gender adaptation of treatment can made a big
difference
.