Doctors Pave the Way in Diabetes Research

According to the Columbia University Medical Center, in November of 2008, a nationally recognized doctor received the award for outstanding achievement in diabetes research. Dr. Bruce Spiegelman is a professor of cell biology who has been focusing on metabolic responses of fat and muscle cells. Through his studies he has been able to identify several of the molecules which are critically important to the process the body goes through. His Harvard research has become vitally important to the possible future treatment of diabetes.

With the increase in obesity rates and other causes of diabetes like hypertension and insulin resistance, researchers are concerned with finding new ways to treat diabetes. Dr. Spiegelman has been working for 30 years to understand the cellular and biochemical pathways. These pathways are the fundamental responses which help control energy expenditure in the body. Dr. Spiegelman discovered adipose cells secrete a molecule known as the tumor necrosis factor which also plays a casual role in systemic insulin resistance, according to the Columbia University Medical Center.

Dr. Spiegelman's research has led to the realization fat secretes these molecules leading to inflammatory signaling. This process means obesity is a pro-inflammatory state which produces cytokines. Cytokines are simply a category of signaling molecules which allow for cellular communication. The adipose tissue produces the cytokines, and according to Dr. Spiegelman's research seems to be a part of the cause for insulin resistance. During his research, Dr. Spiegelman also discovered PPARG, a molecule which targets one of the thiazolidinediones, a medication used to treat Type-2 diabetes. With doctors' research and discoveries, there could soon be a much better treatment for Type-2 diabetes, as well as more advances in how to treat insulin dependence.

Dr. Spiegelman graduated with the highest honors, in 1974, from the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. in 1978, from the University of Princeton. He later went on to do post doctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reveals the Columbia University Medical Center.

The second award went to Dr. Hua Lin, whose research focused on how the receptive organs in the body talked to each other to produce the insulin the body naturally needs to regulate blood glucose. Dr. Lin also studied the role the brain plays in determining insulin insensitivity and metabolic efficiency. According to the Columbia University Medical Center, her research allowed her to discover divergent pathways underlying insulin dependant regulation causing energy imbalance and glucose homeostasis.