This year’s Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD) meeting, taking place from February 22-25, will have 45 presenters who are or were JDRF-funded researchers working to treat, prevent and, ultimately, cure type 1 diabetes (T1D) and its complications. Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D., JDRF Chief Scientific Officer, Jon Rosen, Ph.D., Director of Research, and Anastasia Albanese-O’Neill, Ph.D., APRN, CDCES, Director of Community Screening and Clinical Trial Education, will be there, too, chairing sessions on monitoring and glucose control.

Here are select highlights of JDRF-funded research that will be featured:

• In a JDRF Session chaired by Jon Rosen, Ph.D., on February 23, presenters David O’Neal, M.D., University of Melbourne, Rodica Busui, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan, and Idan Tamir, Ph.D., QuLab Medical, will talk about the clinical need for continuous ketone monitoring, in addition to continuous glucose monitoring, to enable SGLT therapy—which can lower your HbA1c levels but has an increased risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)—use for heart and kidney health for people with T1D.
• On February 24, we will hear the latest JDRF-funded clinical trial results from Gregory Forlenza, M.D., University of Colorado, who was one of the investigators on the phase III CLVer (Closed Loop + Verapamil, pronounced “clever”) study to test whether a hybrid closed loop (i.e., artificial pancreas) system and/or verapamil preserves beta cell function one year after diagnosis.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)—a life-threatening complication—is an abundance of ketones in the blood, which typically also happens when blood sugar is very high. With SGLT therapy, however, DKA presents with blood-sugar levels at normal or near it. Because of this, ketone sensors will be crucial to regulatory approval and access to SGLT drugs.

• In another JDRF Session introduced by Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D., you will hear from Michael Haller, M.D., University of Florida, Chantal Mathieu, M.D., Ph.D., KU Leuven, Belgium, and Kimber Simmons, M.D., University of Colorado, on which technology to use for monitoring pre-symptomatic T1D after autoantibodies are detected, on February 25.
• Also on February 25, the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) will have a session on global T1D, with Jamie R. Wood, M.D., Case Western Reserve University and secretary general of ISPAD, presenting on T1D technology in low and middle low-income countries, using insights from the T1D Index, a first-of-its-kind tool that provides the most accurate and comprehensive global figures of T1D across the world.

Stay tuned on social media (Facebook at @myJDRF, Twitter at @JDRF, and LinkedIn) for exciting news at ATTD!