Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Work by Michigan Technological University biologist Xiaoqing Tang is yielding new insights into how a tiny snippet of genetic material can promote healthy insulin production in mice.
Her work may eventually lead to new therapies for the treatment of diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 26 million Americans and causes myriad health problems, including heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. Diabetes results when the pancreas does not produce or release enough insulin into the blood stream or when cells fail to respond to the hormone.
The genetic material in question is a microRNA molecule called miR-30d, which is the same in mice and people. MicroRNA, or miRNA, attaches to long RNA molecules and prevents them from making proteins.
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2012/september/story78202.html
Her work may eventually lead to new therapies for the treatment of diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 26 million Americans and causes myriad health problems, including heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. Diabetes results when the pancreas does not produce or release enough insulin into the blood stream or when cells fail to respond to the hormone.
The genetic material in question is a microRNA molecule called miR-30d, which is the same in mice and people. MicroRNA, or miRNA, attaches to long RNA molecules and prevents them from making proteins.
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2012/september/story78202.html