INNODIA HARVEST

Diabetes projects INNODIA and INNODIA HARVEST have announced the winners of their Young Scientists Award. The award was open to all scientists under the age of 40 who are working in INNODIA and INNODIA HARVEST. ###Entrants were asked to explain the work they do in a one-minute video, and one of the most important requirements was the ability to explain their activities in lay language. The jury consisted of the patient advisory committee members.

The winner of the competition was Pieter-Jan Martens, a PhD student at KU Leuven in Belgium. In his winning video, he presents a study in which two potential diabetes treatments that work in different ways are combined. Research in mice suggests that the combination of both therapies is safe and 3-4 times more effective than either of the treatments on their own.

Second prize went to Jessica Hill of the University of Exeter in the UK, and third prize went to Gisele Silva Boos of the Helmholtz Zentrum Munich in Germany.

The project hopes that the award will encourage starting scientists to showcase their work and to name the challenges they face in diabetes research.

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IMI’s INNODIA and INNODIA HARVEST projects have launched four clinical trials designed to test treatments to prevent and cure type 1 diabetes. The trials focus on children, adolescents and adults aged from 5 to 45 years who have been diagnosed within the past 6 weeks.###

The first trial, MELD-ATG, was launched by INNODIA in December 2020, and investigates whether ATG (anti-thymocyte globulin) antibodies targeting the immune system can stop the body´s immune system from attacking the cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin. Insulin is responsible for regulating blood sugar levels. Three further clinical trials have since been launched by INNODIA’s sister project, INNODIA HARVEST. The trials all follow the INNODIA master protocol for clinical trials, which received the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) earlier in 2020.

‘This is a very important moment for us,’ said INNODIA coordinator Professor Chantal Mathieu of University Hospital Leuven. ‘We bring our INNODIA network to the next level, by going from biomarker discovery to clinical interventions.’

All the trials focus on people who have just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes because research has shown that in the newly-diagnosed, half of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin are still working (this is known as the honeymoon). The hope is that by treating these people with drugs designed to protect these cells, they will retain the ability to produce their own insulin, and be spared the need to inject themselves with insulin.

‘With a strong community of people with type 1 diabetes and big pharma companies involved, we have high hopes to discover products that will increase the quality of life for people living with type one diabetes,’ said Dr Olivier Arnaud, a member of INNODIA’s Patient Advisory Committee (PAC).

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