Canberra-based medical researchers have discovered a potential new treatment for Type-1 diabetes – an autoimmune disease which currently affects some 130,000 Australians. They have identified a previously unknown process which causes destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The researchers found that the insulin-producing cells need a complex sugar, heparan sulphate, for their survival.
Dr Charmaine Simeonovic and Prof Christopher Parish, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU
The Journal of Clinical Investigation; http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=13221