Leading the fight against diabetes

STUDIES by two Jewish researchers at the Garvan Institute are building understanding of metabolic differences between individuals, which could lead to more effective treatments, earlier detection, or even prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Israeli-born Dr Dorit Samocha-Bonet, who established Garvan’s Clinical Insulin Resistance Group, told The AJN their work has detected differing characteristics, among obese people, that could drive insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance.

“We are finding that some people are more insulin-resistant in the liver, some in the muscle, and some in neither,” she said.

“It means not all pre-diabetic qualities or characteristics in these individuals are the same – and if you are going to treat them all the same, then you are not likely to target specific impairments.”

Professor Jerry Greenfield heads a research laboratory at Garvan’s Diabetes and Metabolism Division and is the head of endocrinology at St Vincent’s Hospital.

He said knowing these differences – together with other factors like genomics, hormone levels and blood markers – could lead to “precision medicine” solutions to reduce the onset of diabetes.

Greenfield added that research shows the location of fat, particularly around the belly, is a more important factor than overall obesity for the risk of type 2 diabetes.

“What Dorit and I have found in recent studies is there are some individuals – probably up to 30 per cent of those who are overweight or obese – who seem to have minimal amounts of abdominal fat.

“These are the individuals who are insulin sensitive, so what we are trying to look at is what protects these people from developing diabetes.”

Last year Samocha-Bonet was awarded a $60,000 grant from the Australian Diabetes Society towards her research into the relationship between body acidity and insulin resistance, including testing whether sodium bicarbonate could be an effective treatment option.

“We’ve actually finished one arm of that study and are going to publish the results of that soon,” she said.

Greenfield and Samocha-Bonet are excited about the enormous potential for breakthrough research, in all areas of medicine, that the Garvan-Weizmann Centre for Cellular Genomics will have.

The $10 million centre is due to open in Sydney, within Garvan’s Kinghorn Cancer Centre, in late July or early August.

“As a proud Israeli and Australian, I’m very happy to see this partnership between these two great, independent research institutes,” Samocha-Bonet said.

Greenfield described it as “a win-win association for both institutes” by combining their strengths.

SHANE DESIATNIK