Alliance to Identify Diabetes Biomarkers

A collaboration to identify biomarkers for type 1 diabetes has been announced by Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA) and Metabolon, Inc. (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA).

Diabetic nephropathy is a kidney disease that occurs as a result of type 1 diabetes. It is a leading cause of kidney failure in the United States. The new study is being funded by a grant from the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, Bethesda, MD, USA) to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Metabolon will test urine and plasma samples obtained from patients using it metabolomics platform that searches for signatures that predict the likelihood of developing diabetic nephropathy. The results will be used to help achieve the earliest possible diagnosis to identify patients eligible for treatment trials. Metabolon's metabolomics technology measures the spectrum of biochemical changes and maps these changes to metabolic pathways. The technology can help identify safer compounds for development, shorten the time for drugs to reach the market, and identify novel biomarkers for earlier disease detection.

"Diabetic nephropathy is a frequent complication of diabetes that can lead to kidney failure, which can then require dialysis or a kidney transplant,” said Darryl E. Palmer, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We are very hopeful that successful biomarker identification technology will enable us to predict which patients will develop nephropathy, and to diagnose and treat it at an earlier stage of the disease.”



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Metabolon
Mass. General Hospital