The Latest In Diabetes Treatment: Micro Bubbles

Filed in archive Research on May 23, 2006

You read that right: micro bubbles! In yet another potential breakthrough in diabetes research, scientists have successfully inserted insulin-producing genes into mice by enclosing the genes in teensy little bubbles. The genes were then 'freed' by breaking the bubbles with sound waves. What could this mean for diabetes in humans?

The technique is less invasive than other strategies that require direct injections into the pancreas, the U.S. researchers note.

The approach is "very clever," said Dr. Bob Goldstein, chief scientific officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. "Short of sticking a needle directly into your pancreas and delivering a gene, how am I going to deliver something harmlessly, so it doesn't hurt you and it gets to where I want it to go? That's what's special about this," said Goldstein.

What's next in innovative diabetes research?