New findings suggest that it might be possible to treat diabetes by regenerating insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Vanderbilt University is part of a national effort to improve diabetes treatment by developing strategies for proliferating, regenerating and improving the function of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets.

Vanderbilt University scientists have found evidence that the insulin-secreting beta cells of the pancreas, which are either killed or become dysfunctional in the two main forms of diabetes, have the capacity to regenerate.

Alvin Powers, M.D., professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, has been named to the American Diabetes Association Board of Directors.

Vanderbilt researchers describe a new technique for identifying factors that stimulate the proliferation of pancreatic beta cells – factors that might offer therapeutic options for diabetes.

Vanderbilt University’s contributions to the field of diabetes — past and present — were celebrated recently during the annual Diabetes Day at the Vanderbilt Student Life Center.

Inactivation by oxidative stress of specific transcription factors essential for pancreatic islet beta cell function is a key event in the development of type 2 diabetes, Vanderbilt University researchers and their colleagues have found.