Western Sydney University researchers have led a global team to pioneer a new AI-powered tool to assess the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D) and predict treatment responses, potentially changing how the disease is diagnosed and managed.
This innovative risk score, based on microRNAs—small RNA molecules measured from blood—could help accurately capture the changing risk of T1D. The same microRNA markers used in the study were able to accurately predict early response to certain treatments, such as a cell therapy (islet transplantation), as well as a drug therapy (imatinib) for T1D.
In their article published in Nature Medicine, the research analyzed molecular data in 5,983 study samples from participants across Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong SAR China, India, New Zealand, and U.S., to develop a Dynamic Risk Score (DRS4C) that can classify people as having or not having T1D.
In a clinical trial led by University of Toronto researchers, an allogeneic stem cell–derived islet therapy (zimislecel) restored insulin production and ended severe hypoglycemia in adults with type 1 diabetes within a year of treatment.
More than 8 million people worldwide live with type 1 diabetes, a lifelong condition marked by the loss of insulin-producing beta cells. Without those cells, the body loses its ability to regulate blood glucose, and patients rely on supplemented insulin to avoid life-threatening complications.
Automated insulin delivery systems and continuous glucose monitors have expanded options for many patients. Even with intensive insulin therapy, most never reach recommended glycemic targets.
For patients with impaired hypoglycemia awareness, who cannot detect falling glucose levels, the margin for error is dangerously narrow.
Transplants of pancreatic islets or whole organs can restore physiologic glycemic control. Yet those procedures depend on donor tissue, and many recipients require multiple grafts from separate donors to reach partial insulin independence. Consistent, scalable methods to replace beta cells have not been available.
A massive study of more than 200,000 US adults has revealed that not all potatoes are created equal – because different forms will dramatically shift your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But there's some good news for spud-lovers, showing that it all comes down to preparation and that the often maligned root vegetable has some significant health benefits, too.
Researchers from Harvard University analyzed data from 205,107 healthy adult men and women – free from diabetes, cancer or cardiovascular disease – in the long-term Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII) and Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS).
Across these studies, dietary intake and health outcomes were tracked for up to 36 years, with data collected between 1984 and 2021, and questionnaires and new information entered every two-to-four years. Over the course of this period, 22,299 cases of type 2 diabetes (T2D) were documented.
In the U.S., one in five of the 37 million adults who has diabetes doesn't know it. Current methods of diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes usually require a visit to a doctor's office or lab work, both of which can be expensive and time-consuming. Now, diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes may be as simple as breathing.
A research team led by Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, has developed a sensor that can help diagnose diabetes and prediabetes on-site in a few minutes using just a breath sample. Their results are published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.
Previous diagnostic methods often used glucose found in blood or sweat, but this sensor detects acetone levels in the breath. While everyone's breath contains acetone as a byproduct of burning fat, acetone levels above a threshold of about 1.8 parts per million indicate diabetes.
An existing transplant drug has shown promise in slowing the progression of type 1 diabetes in newly diagnosed young people, potentially paving the way for the first therapy that modifies the disease after diagnosis.
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in childhood or early adulthood. Once it starts, the immune system attacks the pancreas, destroying insulin-producing beta cells. Right now, there aren’t any approved treatments that slow this destructive process once the disease is established.
A new study led by researchers from UZ Leuven, Belgium’s largest university hospital, tested whether a drug called antithymocyte globulin (ATG), an existing immune-suppressing drug, could preserve beta cell function in young people who had just been diagnosed with diabetes.
A Garvan-led clinical trial has found that using a common and inexpensive type 2 diabetes drug reduces insulin needs in type 1 diabetes, opening doors for improved management of the condition.
For years, doctors have prescribed metformin, an old but common type 2 diabetes medication, to treat insulin resistance in type 1 diabetes. This has been largely based on anecdotal evidence. Now, a clinical trial led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has found that metformin does not counteract insulin resistance in type 1 diabetes, but instead reduces the amount of insulin needed to maintain blood sugar levels in the ideal range.
Blood sugar monitor switches needle pricks for infrared light
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
December 04, 2025
Beyond the myriad complications that come with diabetes, patients have to additionally put up with regular blood sugar testing – which involves either multiple pin pricks a day to draw blood or wearing a continuous glucose monitor patch that needs to be replaced every couple of weeks. If you're not good with needles, this can be awful.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) might have a better way: they've developed blood glucose sensing tech that uses near-infrared light to scan tissue in your skin and accurately measure blood sugar – no needles necessary.
The non-invasive Raman microscopy-based system currently requires you to place your arm atop a shoebox-sized device and wait 30 seconds for a scan. Here, laser light is shone onto body tissues and the unique pattern of light that scatters back is analyzed, similar to how different materials reflect light in distinctive ways. When the laser hits molecules in your tissues or fluids, it causes them to vibrate and return light at slightly different wavelengths, revealing what's present in those molecules.
Common nutrient turns our guts into diabetes-fighting chemical factories
By Michael Franco
December 09, 2025
Adding to the growing body of research that proves our microbiome is a powerful ally in fighting disease, scientists have found that an easy-to-get nutrient in our food causes our guts to produce powerful insulin-regulating compounds.
For decades, medical science has been focused on developing treatments that are administered to patients from outside their own bodies. Now, however, more and more research is being focused on ways to marshal the team of microbes we have living in our guts to produce the compounds we need to fight disease. Earlier this year, for example, it was found that an antibiotic primarily used in veterinary medicine was able to convince the microbes in mouse guts to produce colonic acid, a life-extending compound.
Now, a team led by a researcher from Imperial College London has figured out another powerful way our gut microbes can help us out – this time by tamping down inflammation caused by a fatty diet, keeping our insulin response in check and, in turn, warding off diabetes.
When a person consistently eats a high fat diet, it can trigger chronic inflammation in the body through a combination of hormonal disruption, immune signaling, and cellular stress. That inflammation, in turn, can lead to insulin resistance, a state where our cells no longer properly respond to insulin, a hormone that allows the glucose in our blood to move into our cells for use as energy. This state can lead to type 2 diabetes where blood sugar levels spike and our pancreas struggles to pump out enough insulin to process it.
