State of the art science

In type 1 and type 2 diabetes, destroyed or impaired beta cells cause an elevated blood sugar level. PLID scientists are working on deciphering the mechanisms that lead to the destruction and/or functional impairment of beta cells and are also trying to develop new approaches to replace damaged or destroyed beta cells.

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Research consortia at a glance

Lipotype

Lipotype is a project partner of the PLID within the RHAPSODY consortium. Combining new and existing data with the expertise of its partners, RHAPSODY will develop novel biomarkers to refine diagnosis leading to better patient stratification, promote prevention, and support innovative drug discovery for personalized management of diabetes.

Collaborative Research Center - Transregio 83

The central aims of the TRR 83 are to characterize the molecular composition and structural organization of distinct membrane domains, to elucidate their physical and chemical properties and to understand their physiological functions.

Rhapsody

The stated goal of RHAPSODY is to define a molecular taxonomy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) that will support patient segmentation, inform clinical trial design, and the establishment of regulatory paths for the adoption of novel strategies for diabetes prevention and treatment.

Freder1k

Freder1k Study: Early identification of an increased type 1 diabetes risk to prevent the disease

INNODIA

INNODIA is a global partnership between 26 academic institutions, 4 industrial partners, a small sized enterprise and 2 patient organisations, bringing their knowledge and experience together with one common goal: "To fight type 1 diabetes". Importantly, INNODIA is closely guided by the patients themselves, through the Patient Advisory Committee, consisting of a group of type 1 diabetes patients and parents, which give continuous feedback on the concept of INNODIA and development of protocols, and are crucial in disseminating the goals of INNODIA to the public.

Junior Research Group Care4Saxony

The interdisciplinary research group Care4Saxony investigates the influence of digitalization on saxonian health and care (eHealth). The focus lies on the analysis of the current healthcare situation and the development of sustainable concepts to combat the effects of the shortage of skilled workers and demographic development through the more intensive use of information and communication technologies.

Collaborative Research Center - Transregio 127

Solid organ and cell transplantations, including pancreatic islets, are the treatment of choice for terminal diseases and several chronic disorders. Due to the shortage of appropriate human organs/tissues for allotransplantation, alternative strategies are required. Xenotransplantation of porcine tissues or organs is a reasonable option, since immunological hurdles and functional incompatibilities can be overcome by precise genetic engineering of donor pigs or by the development of specific matrices and devices for xenotransplantation of cells.

Research at the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden

For this purpose, we use innovative research approaches and state-of-the-art methods to investigate the different aspects of the disease.

For instance, scientists investigate the molecular basis of the formation, storage and secretion of the insulin granules in which the beta cells store the insulin. At the same time, we are investigating the lipid composition of the beta cell plasma membrane in order to understand how modifications in its composition, e. g. after the exocytosis of insulin granules, influence the signalling properties of membrane receptors. Through close cooperation with the clinic for visceral, thoracic and vascular surgery (VTG) we are able to identify the genetic, epigenetic and physiological characteristics of human pancreatic islets, i.a. of metabolically phenotyped non-diabetic, prediabetic and diabetic subjects with the aim to understand the molecular changes associated with beta and alpha cell dysfunction along the natural history of type 2 diabetes. The integration of these data with medical records and clinical-chemical laboratory data should subsequently enable the identification of reliable biochemical biomarkers for the progression of type 2 diabetes.

Within highly translational research approaches, PLID scientists and physicians are working on therapies to replace or regenerate damaged and already destroyed beta cells. They are using regeneration models in mice and zebrafish and are working on the auto- and allogeneic transplantation of insulin-producing islet cells from human donors. In the future, animal tissues (Xenotransplantation) or inducible pluripotent stem cells will also serve as a source for the transplants.

The clinically active research groups of the PLID are amongst others involved in the multicenter clinical studies on the prevention and therapy of type 2 and gestational diabetes, coordinated by the German Center for Diabetes Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung).

Furthermore, we aim to reveal the pathophysiological role and predictive value of important hormones/biomolecules for the manifestation and progress of common metabolic diseases (i.e. type 2 diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) in humans and mice and use metagenome-based approaches to develop novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. In immunometabolism studies, we furthermore investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the crosstalk of inflammation and metabolism in order to identify the role of inflammatory processes in obesity-associated metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Another aspect of our research is the early detection of type 1 diabetes in newborns and the prevention of type 1 diabetes with oral insulin. The objectives of these studies are the immunoprevention of type 1 diabetes, which is primarily focus on preventing the autoimmune mediated destruction of beta cells and developing cellular markers that can be used to identify people at high risk for the development of type 1 diabetes at an early stage.