“New post on The Stem Cellar”

City of Hope scientists use stem cells to develop ‘mini-brains’ to study Alzheimer’s and to test drugs in development

by Yimy Villa

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. According to the non-profit HFC, co-founded by CIRM Board member Lauren Miller Rogen and her husband Seth Rogen, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. It is the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S and it is estimated that by 2050 as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease. Alzheimer’s is the only cause of death among the top 10 in the U.S. without a way to prevent, cure, or even slow its progression, which is it is crucial to better understand the disease and to develop and test potential treatments.

It is precisely for this reason that researchers led by Yanhong Shi, Ph.D. at City of Hope have developed a ‘mini-brain’ model using stem cells in order to study Alzheimer’s and to test drugs in development.

The team was able to model sporadic Alzheimer’s, the most common form of the disease, by using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a kind of stem cell that can be created from skin or blood cells of people through reprogramming and has the ability to turn into virtually any other kind of cell. The researchers used these iPSCs to create ‘mini-brains’, also known as brain organoids, which are 3D models that can be used to analyze certain features of the human brain. Although they are far from perfect replicas, they can be used to study physical structure and other characteristics.

The scientists exposed the ‘mini-brains’ to serum that mimics age-associated blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown. The BBB is a protective barrier that surrounds the brain and its breakdown has been associated with Alzheimer’s and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases . After exposure, the team tested the ‘mini-brains’ for various Alzheimer’s biomarkers. These markers included elevated levels of proteins known as amyloid and tau that are associated with the disease and synaptic breaks linked to cognitive decline.

Research using brain organoids has shown that exposure to serum from blood could induce multiple Alzheimer’s symptoms. This suggests that combination therapies targeting multiple areas would be more effective than single-target therapies currently in development.

The team found that attempting a single therapy, such as inhibiting only amyloid or tau proteins, did not reduce the levels of tau or amyloid, respectively. These findings suggest that amyloid and tau likely cause disease progression independently. Furthermore, exposure to serum from blood, which mimics BBB breakdown, could cause breaks in synaptic connections that help brains remember things and function properly.

Image Description: Yanhong Shi, Ph.D.

In a press release from the Associated Press, Dr. Shi elaborated on the importance of their model for studying Alzheimer’s.

“Drug development for Alzheimer’s disease has run into challenges due to incomplete understanding of the disease’s pathological mechanisms. Preclinical research in this arena predominantly uses animal models, but there is a huge difference between humans and animals such as rodents, especially when it comes to brain architecture. We, at City of Hope, have created a miniature brain model that uses human stem cell technology to study Alzheimer’s disease and, hopefully, to help find treatments for this devastating illness.”

The full results of this study were published in Advance Science.

Dr. Shi has previously worked on several CIRM-funded research projects, such as looking at a potential link between COVID-19 and a gene for Alzheimer’s as well as the development of a therapy for Canavan disease.

“…to help combat immune related problems….”

New post on The Stem Cellar

Improving a special kind of cell to help combat immune related problems

by Yimy Villa

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a type of immune cell that play an extremely important role in maintaining stability in the body and preventing the body’s immune system from attacking its own cells and organs. This unique property makes Tregs extremely valuable to researchers as a potential treatment for immune related issues. One of these is autoimmune disease, which is a disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks healthy cells. Some examples of this are type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and lupus. Another immune related issue is graft vs. host disease (GvHD), which can occur after receiving a transplantation where the donated bone marrow or stem cells start attacking the recipient.

For this reason, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Emory University School of Medicine, partially supported by a CIRM training grant , have been working to generate stable induced Tregs (iTregs) for treating autoimmune diseases and rejection of a transplanted organ. The teams were led by LJI professor Anjana Rao, Ph.D, and Emory instructor Benjamin G. Barwick, Ph.D. The two team study showed evidence that vitamin C and and specific proteins called TET can be combined to give Tregs their life-saving power. Studies have previously found that vitamin C can enhance the activity of TET proteins and prompt the generation of stable iTregs under lab conditions.

For this study, the researchers also analyzed gene expression patterns as well as changes that altered the physical structure of DNA in the induced Tregs. The team found a major modification involving the DNA itself and showed that TET enzymes were also involved. All of these interactions can eventually change how cells “read” the DNA code. They also observed the alteration of DNA accessibility which depends on whether DNA is loosely or tightly coiled. As the DNA coils unwind, regulatory regions become exposed which subsequently influence gene expression.

In a news release, LJI instructor Xiaojing Yue, Ph.D elaborated on the results of this study.

“Vitamin C can be used to stabilize iTregs generated in vitro. We hope that these kinds of induced Tregs can be used in the future for treatment of autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation.”

The full study was published in EMBO reports.

“World Sickle Cell Day”

An Open Letter to CIRM for World Sickle Cell Day

“Dear CIRM,

World Sickle Cell Day is this Saturday June 19th. The goal of this day is to increase knowledge of the disease and understanding of the challenges faced.

“It is a day that I greet with very mixed feelings.  I’m of course extremely grateful to CIRM for the time and money spent looking for a cure.  The work of doctors, of researchers, the courage of families in the sickle cell community who are taking part in studies, and of course those of you who worked so hard for the original funding for CIRM, I applaud all of you, yet it’s hard to wait for a cure.

“While I wait I worry. I worry about my friends who are not getting good care.  They are the ones who can’t find a doctor to treat them, not able to take advantage of the medications that are already approved.  They are the ones who walk into the Emergency Room hoping for knowledgeable treatment while understanding that they may be accused of being a drug seeker,  turned away in excruciating pain. They are the ones who succumb after years of poor care.

“With sickle cell disease there is the same level of understanding about medical malpractice that we had of police brutality before George Floyd. We hardly remember Rodney King or Eric Garner. As a country we were aware that something was wrong but we tended to retreat in denial after each terrible headline.

“That’s where we are with sickle cell disease.  We may see a heart-wrenching story and watch televised reports with interest, but after all, it’s easier to live in disbelief, to think that medical care is not that bad, rather than understand that people are being dismissed and denied treatment. We call it structural racism without understanding what that term really means.

“While I wait I must acknowledge that change is coming.  We have a Sickle Cell Data Collection Project in California that helps us track healthcare for sickle cell disease. This is data that we can use to point to structural weakness and address health disparities.  NASEM, the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine, has published a huge report with significant suggestions for improving sickle cell care. Many scientists, researchers and advocates took part in this landmark study, detailing what has gone wrong in health care and how to improve the work. And of course we have CIRM. I am very thankful for the leadership and pioneering work of doctors Donald Kohn, Matthew Porteus and Joseph Rosenthal who are using their knowledge and experience in this fight.

“When we have successful research on stem cell transplants for sickle cell disease, many of us with sickle cell family members will want to relax, but we can’t forget those who may not be able to get a curative transplant. I hope Dr Niihara at Emmaus, and Dr. Love of Global Blood Therapeutics will continue their important work finding effective treatments. We must continue this fight on all fronts.

“World Sickle Cell Day will come again next year.  Let’s see what it brings.

“A sickle cell grandmother, “Nancy M. René.”

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Celebrating International Women’s Day!

Women who have changed, and are changing, the world

by Kevin McCormack

The problem with trying to write about something like Women’s History Month is where do you start? Even if you narrow it down to women in science the list is vast.

Marie Curie

I suppose you could always start with Maria Salomea Skłodowska who is better known as Marie Curie. She not only discovered radium and polonium, but she was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (in Physics). When she later won another Nobel (in Chemistry) she became the first person ever to win two Nobels and is still the only person ever to win in two different fields. Not a bad place to start.

Agnes Pockels

Or how about Agnes Pockels (1862–1935). Even as a child Agnes was fascinated by science but, in Germany at the time, women were not allowed to attend university. So, she depended on her younger brother to send her his physics textbooks when he was finished with them. Agnes studied at home while taking care of her elderly parents. Doing the dishes  Agnes noticed how oils and soaps could impact the surface tension of water. So, she invented a method of measuring that surface tension. She wrote a paper about her findings that was published in Nature, and went on to become a highly respected and honored pioneer in the field.

Jennifer Doudna (left) and Emmanuelle Charpentier: Photo courtesy Nature

Fast forward to today we could certainly do worse than profile the two women who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9; Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. Their pioneering work showed how you could use CRISPR  to make precise edits in genes, creating the possibility of using it to edit human genes to eliminate or cure diseases. In fact, some CIRM-funded research is already using this approach to try and cure sickle cell disease.

In awarding the Nobel to Charpentier and Doudna, Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, a biophysical chemist and member of the Nobel chemistry committee, said: “The ability to cut DNA where you want has revolutionized the life sciences. The ‘genetic scissors’ were discovered just eight years ago but have already benefited humankind greatly.”

Barbara McClintock: Photo courtesy Brittanica

Appropriately enough none of that work would have been possible without the pioneering work of another woman, Barbara McClintock. She dedicated her career to studying the genetics of corn and developed a technique that enabled her to identify individual chromosomes in different strains of corn.

At the time it was thought that genes were stable and were arranged in a linear fashion on chromosomes, like beads on a string. McClintock’s work showed that genes could be mobile, changing position and altering the work of other genes. It took a long time before the scientific world caught up with her and realized she was right. But in 1983 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work.

Katherine Johnson at her desk at Langley Research Center: Photo courtesy NASA /AFP

Katherine Johnson is another brilliant mind whose recognition came later in life. But when it did, it made her a movie star. Kind of. Johnson was a mathematician, a “computer” in the parlance of the time. She did calculations by hand, enabling NASA to safely launch and recover astronauts in the early years of the space race.

Johnson and the other Black “computers” were segregated from their white colleagues until the last 1950’s, when signs dictating which restrooms and drinking fountains they could use were removed. She was so highly regarded that when John Glenn was preparing for the flight that would make him the first American to orbit the earth he asked for her to manually check the calculations a computer had made. He trusted her far more than any machine.

Johnson and her co-workers were overlooked until the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures” brought their story to life. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, by President Obama.

There are so many extraordinary women scientists we could talk about who have made history. But we should also remind ourselves that we are surrounded by remarkable women right now, women who are making history in their own way, even if we don’t recognized it at the moment. Researchers that CIRM funds, Dr. Catriona Jamieson at UC San Diego, Dr. Jan Nolta at UC Davis, Dr. Jane Lebkowski with Regenerative Patch technologies and so many others. They’re all helping to change the world. We just don’t know it yet.

If you would like to learn about other women who have made extraordinary contributions to science you can read about them here and here and here.

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Wait, there’s more science!

“Given the ongoing struggle to find new therapeutic cancer drug targets, I have long believed that a more rapid approach for discovery would consist of reversing the question,” stated Stine. “Rather than the conventional route of interrogating the tumor at the genomic and proteomic level in order to reveal disease-associated targets, why not ask the patient? The readout for differences in self and non-self antigens manifests itself in the form of antibodies, and our approach assumes that the answers to our drug and target discovery questions are contained within this response.” – J.T. Stine, Seattle Times, 2005

Applications in Humans

The statement above was the founding question addressed by Spaltudaq (today known as Theraclone Sciences).  The result of sampling a cancer patient’s immune repertoire led to the discovery of a broadly reactive and specific IgG antibody using the iSTAR method (a precursor to BLAST).

Discovery:

Screen normal/exposed and disease individuals for

  1. Neutralizing anti-infective antibodies (viral, bacterial)

  2. Tumor specific antibodies/epitopes from host B-cells

Immune monitoring

  1. Vaccine evaluations prior or during clinical trials – associate epitopes with efficacy

  2. Monitor immune response during tolerance block therapeutics such as anti-CTLA-4 or anti-PD1

Auto-immune patient B-cell screening

  1. Discover antibodies in auto-immune patient repertoire which can be therapeutic in other diseases where the eliciting target exists.

Applications in other mammals:

Discovery:

Immunize with tumor lines or clinical isolates

  1. Screen for novel tumor-specific or -selective epitopes or targets for naked antibody targeted ADCC

  2. Screen for novel internalization targets for antibody/drug conjugates

  3. Screen for functional antibodies that have a deleterious effect on tumor growth

Immunize with viral or bacterial targets

  1. Upfront functional screens can reveal novel or additional antibody epitope pairs for neutralization

  2. Use neutralization data to engineer more efficacious vaccines

Target extracellular domains of 7TM’s/GPCR’s

  1. The most “drugable” target is easily targeted with BLAST

  2. Discover antibodies that are agonists, antagonists or neutral

  3. Discover a more specific cell set to deplete due to the selective expression of GPCR’s on various cell types

An example of the use of BLAST in Type 1 diabetes (T!D) to interrogate the immunological history of their disease in order to determine the most relevant first-response cell surface proteins which were targeted on pancreatic islets cells by T-cells or other effector mechanisms.  A discovery here may lead to another use of BLAST which would consist of understanding the TCR’s responsible for this detection and selectively eliminating them with anti-TCR-specific antibodies.

Whole-cell immunization & BLAST

  1. Antibody generation in a massive scale

  2. Below is an example of the fraction of antibodies created en masse

BLAST

Functional Screen

Hit Selection

IgG Memory B-cells

Hits

Molecular

Reconstitution

V-gene

sequence

matching

  1. Reveals:

  2. v-gene epitope bias and overall immune response to target

  3. alternative target-specific hypermutated related sequences that may have other desirable properties that weren’t revealed in the screen and can now be synthesized

“North Coast Biologics…”read it here….

http://www.northcoastbio.com/NCB/Applications.html?fbclid=IwAR3YiFthAtFWMBZoFVxwnkdBkvBQgSzRGk-4ApyaJkqh4zT_Qdtz2vlBcps

Our Purpose:

The Technology:  BLAST

Mab in-license opportunities:

“Applications of BLAST

“BLAST is a method that physically displays an entire, native IgG immune response in an easily assayable format for discovering antibodies with desired function or features.  For the first time, immune responses from various mammals (humans included) can be sampled thoroughly and efficiently for rare antibodies of high affinity or function for therapeutic antibody discovery.  BLAST has been configured for speed (7 days to see results from B-cells to screens) and flexibility in that it has been industrialized to the degree that you can “work at the speed of thought”.  An entire immunological history of acute or chronic disease can be assayed or monitored for both efficacious antibodies and their associated targets or epitopes.  All antibodies are delivered humanized when non-human species are used.

“The Technology >>

“North Coast Bio is an antibody company committed to the discovery and generation of antibody therapeutics for serving unmet medical needs and/or to replace antibodies to known, validated targets that under perform either via partnerships or our own internal efforts.

“The company was founded for the sole purpose of free and creative deployment of the main technology into the typical areas, but also to include those that traditional venture backed companies cannot serve.  Our goal is to choose disease indications based on unmet need rather than market size alone while simultaneously partnering BLAST with biotech companies or pharma’s who wish to co-discover and subsequently develop antibodies that suit their clinical interests.

Read more… >>

“The BLAST platform has been engineered for flexibility and for speed.

“BLAST in humans can sample the native immune repertoire for:

  1. anti-infective antibodies against viruses or bacteria from individuals infected (titer+) or vaccinated

  2. tumor-specific antibodies from “normal” individuals as well as those currently with cancer

  3. therapeutic antibodies from auto-immune patients where those antibodies that are part of the pathology of their disease are actually efficacious in another

  4. antibodies that reveal epitopes that are either responsible for an auto-immune disease (for targeting) or reveal neutralizing epitopes that can be used to engineer new vaccines.

“BLAST in other immune animals such as rabbits, mice, or macaque creates the opportunity to find antibodies with exceptional therapeutic qualities by producing a treasure trove of selectable antibodies due to access to millions of IgG’s afforded by the BLAST approach.

The Applications >>

Personalized Medicine:  Compassionate Use of BLAST

Partnering:

“North Coast Bio is funded solely via partnerships with pharma, biotech companies, and academic institutions.  We are soliciting partnerships to take advantage of BLAST for discovery of novel therapeutic antibodies/targets or generation of therapeutic antibodies to known targets that out perform the respective current sub-par approved antibodies.  Our areas of focus are cancer, infectious disease, auto-immunity, and vaccine monitoring (reverse vaccinology).  BLAST is readily used to either discover new epitopes for vaccine development, or to monitor vaccine responses down to the epitope which provide the greatest therapeutic effect either pre-clinically or in clinical trials.

More about partnering >>

“It’s time for our local biotech community to get off our collective asses and make things happen.  Do you have an idea for a therapeutic antibody but are forbidden to pursue it?  Conforming to the current conservative way is killing our industry.  There are so many therapeutics waiting to be discovered and generated using antibodies.  We’ve given our local physicians virtually nothing to work with since the mid 90’s with Rituxan, Herceptin, and Erbitux.  While these are great drugs, we don’t need more of the same.  If you have a great idea, take some risk, get your work plan together and come to North Coast and execute the plan.  We’ve let far too many cancer patients die from tumors that are very treatable with antibodies.  If the established companies won’t pursue discovery of new targets in these areas,…..we will.  Bring it…..

North Coast Stimulus >>

Economic stimulus with antibodies:

Announcements/Announcements.html
 http://www.northcoastbio.com/NCB/Applications.html?fbclid=IwAR3YiFthAtFWMBZoFVxwnkdBkvBQgSzRGk-4ApyaJkqh4zT_Qdtz2vlBcps

T1D Management Complexities Explained and Enhanced Through Dr. Jody Stanislaw

A T1D friend on the other side of the U.S. continent shared this story with me. I am a T1D. Because I have found this to be an absolutely remarkable, newsworthy, descriptive, helpful and realistic share…I share it – have to share it – with you. It’s long. But listening is most beneficial.

Type Ones and Type Twos, listen up!

“The Disorder Formerly Known as Juvenile Diabetes: The Complexity of Type 1 Diabetes”

“Are Type 1 Diabetes symptoms the same as Type 2 Diabetes symptoms? Can Type 1 Diabetes treatments be applied successfully to Type 2 Diabetes? Dr. Jody Stanislaw, whose Tedx Talk entitled Sugar is Not a Treat has surpassed one million views, breaks down the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.”

“Tune in to discover:

  • The connection between dietary fat and insulin resistance
  • Nutrition and fitness facts to help with effective Diabetes management
  • The ideal Type 1 Diabetes diet

“Jody is a naturopathic doctor and a Certified Diabetes Educator, who specializes in training Type 1 Diabetes patients to properly adjust and administer their insulin without fear or guesswork. She also suffers from the disease herself and has since her early childhood. Unlike Type 2 Diabetes, Type 1 is an irreversible auto-immune disorder. There is currently no Type 1 Diabetes cure.

“Managing Type 1 Diabetes is much more complex than simply monitoring sugar intake. Hormone levels, genetics, body mass index, activity levels, and dozens of other factors actively contribute to a person’s blood sugar range each day. Contrary to popular belief, obesity is not associated with Type 1 Diabetes causes. In fact, no specific causes have been identified to date.

“Jody embraces a mostly plant based food diet and educates her patients on plant-based diet benefits as well. She also acknowledges that most people will not be capable of realistically adhering to a very strict diet 100% of the time. She offers specific advice to her patients and on her website for how a Type 1 Diabetes patient can adjust their insulin and blood sugar testing in order to indulge safely for special occasions.

“To learn more about Jody’s personal Diabetes journey, sign up for her classes, or try out her one-on-one services visit https://www.drjodynd.com/ Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK.”

Just keepin’ you informed, as always!

A. K. Buckroth, www.mydiabeticsoul.com

 

 

T1D Specialty Books to Include a Dog with Diabetes

As a living testament to a lifetime with diabetes, my authorship with numerous books on the subject have come to fruition. “Me and My Dog Named Money…a child’s story of diabetes, Book One,” copyright in 2019:
“Me & My Money Too, Book Two,” copyright 2019; and
“Kisses for Cash…T1D meets T2D” copyright 2016,
continue to inspire readers aged 8 – 108.

Handsomely illustrated by Amy Pichly Meyer and author A. K. Buckroth, such drawings help bring a visual to the management of diabetes. These elementary grade children’s books delicately bring up the subject of diabetes with animals. Such diagnoses have risen over 300% in the last decade. So, “Money & Cash,” are family pets. Read about their lives with their loving humans.

Available through Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads through e-readers and paperbacks, look up and ask for “A. K. Buckroth.” You’ll be happy you did!

“Authoritative Stem Cell Information,” MmmHmm.

New post on The Stem Cellar

Tipping our hat to the good guys (& gals)

by Kevin McCormack

A search on Google using the term “stem cell blogs” quickly produces a host of sites offering treatments for everything from ankle, hip and knee problems, to Parkinson’s disease and asthma. Amazingly the therapies for those very different conditions all use the same kind of cells produced in the same way. It’s like magic. Sadly, it’s magic that is less hocus pocus and more bogus bogus.

The good news is there are blogs out there (besides us, of course) that do offer good, accurate, reliable information about stem cells. The people behind them are not in this to make a quick buck selling snake oil. They are in this to educate, inform, engage and enlighten people about what stem cells can, and cannot do.

So, here’s some of our favorites.

The Niche

This blog has just undergone a face lift and is now as colorful and easy to read as it is informative. It bills itself as the longest running stem cell blog around. It’s run by UC Davis stem cell biologist Dr. Paul Knoepfler – full disclosure, we have funded some of Paul’s work – and it’s a constant source of amazement to me how Paul manages to run a busy research lab and post regular updates on his blog.

The power of The Niche is that it’s easy for non-science folk – like me – to read and understand without having to do a deep dive into Google search or Wikipedia. It’s well written, informative and often very witty. If you are looking for a good website to check whether some news about stem cells is real or suspect, this is a great place to start.

Stem Cell Battles

This site is run by another old friend of CIRM’s, Don Reed. Don has written extensively about stem cell research in general, and CIRM in particular. His motivation to do this work is clear. Don says he’s not a doctor or scientist, he’s something much simpler:

“No. I am just a father fighting for his paralyzed son, and the only way to fix him is to advance cures for everyone. Also, my mother died of breast cancer, my sister from leukemia, and I myself am a prostate cancer survivor. So, I have some very personal reasons to support the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and to want state funding for stem cell and other regenerative medicine research to continue in California!”

The power of Don’s writing is that he always tells human stories, real tales about real people. He makes everything he does accessible, memorable and often very funny. If I’m looking for ways to explain something complex and translate it into everyday English, I’ll often look at Don’s work, he knows how to talk to people about the science without having their eyes cloud over.

A Closer Look at Stem Cells

This is published by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the leading professional organization for stem cell scientists. You might expect a blog from such a science-focused organization to be heavy going for the ordinary person, but you’d be wrong.

A Closer Look at Stem Cells is specifically designed for people who want to learn more about stem cells but don’t have the time to get a PhD. They have sections explaining what stem cells are, what they can and can’t do, even a glossary explaining different terms used in the field (I used to think the Islets of Langerhans were small islands off the coast of Germany till I went to this site).

One of the best, and most important, parts of the site is the section on clinical trials, helping people understand what’s involved in these trials and the kinds of things you need to consider before signing up for one.

Signals

Of course, the US doesn’t have a monopoly on stem cell research and that’s reflected in the next two choices. One is the Signals Blog from our friends to the north in Canada. This is an easy-to-read site that describes itself as the “Insiders perspective on the world of stem cells and regenerative medicine.” The ‘Categories ‘dropdown menu allows you to choose what you want to read, and it gives you lots of options from the latest news to a special section for patients, even a section on ethical and legal issues.

EuroStemCell

As you may have guessed from the title this is by our chums across the pond in Europe. They lay out their mission on page one saying they want to help people make sense of stem cells:

“As a network of scientists and academics, we provide independent, expert-reviewed information and road-tested educational resources on stem cells and their impact on society. We also work with people affected by conditions, educators, regulators, media, healthcare professionals and policymakers to foster engagement and develop material that meets their needs.”

True to their word they have great information on the latest research, broken down by different types of disease, different types of stem cell etc. And like CIRM they also have some great educational resources for teachers to use in the classroom.

Latest T1D Books…by Yerachmiel Altman

…”I Can Help Take Care Of Me: A book about

Type 1 diabetes (Learning to Live with

Diabetes for Children).”

“…is a poetic introduction for children living with diabetes. The book goes through the standard methods of care that a child will be living with, demonstrates how the equipment works and what it does. The book should help a child to see that his diagnosis is not the end of the world and is something that he’ll live and work with. The book is also an excellent teaching tool for family members, teachers, classmates and others that need to become knowledgeable in diabetes.

I’ve written this book to help children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes learn the “basics”. It begins with the child’s diagnosis, gives simple explanations of what type 1 diabetes is, and then proceeds to show meters, pumps and CGMS sensors. It describes activities of daily living.

The aim is to familiarize children with the hardware and issues that they will be living with. This is NOT to be used as a medical book. I am NOT working with dosing, carbohydrate counting, or other specific medical issues as these must be handled by the medical team.”

AND…

The Moose with the Pump: A book for children with type 1 diabetes (Type 1 diabetes for children) by [Yerachmiel Altman, Moose Pump, Sara Chana Altman]Available at Amazon.com! Because you need to know. 🙂