Look into the Future
| Research Opportunity | Forecast | |
| Type 1 Diabetes | ||
| Development of new readily applicable methods for achieving tight glucose control without hypoglycemia | Prevention of diabetes complications | |
| Continued identification of additional predisposing diabetes genes | Predictive diagnostic test and preventive strategies | |
| Development and testing of methods for replacing beta-cell function in patients, including islet transplantation | Functional cure of diabetes | |
| Improve and develop methods which cause proliferation or maintenance of endogenous beta cells and precursor progenitor cells | Functional cure of diabetes and major advance for cell-based therapies in other diseases | |
| Type 2 Diabetes | ||
| Continued identification of new genes conferring disease susceptibility in common forms of type 2 diabetes and obesity | Predictive diagnostic test and development of specific mechanism-based drugs and/or gene-therapy-based drugs and/or gene therapy | |
| Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms responsible for insulin resistance and defective insulin secretion | Development of improved antidiabetic drugs | |
| Definition of pathways of appetite regulation and energy expenditure | New methods for prevention and treatment of obesity | |
| Identification of the mechanisms whereby environmental factors convert predisposition to type 2 diabetes into overt clinical disease | Prevention of diabetes | |
| Improve and develop methods which cause proliferation or maintenance of endogenous beta cells and precursor progenitor cells | New methods for testing and development of antidiabetic therapies | |
| Application of noninvasive and other cutting-edge technologies to unravel metabolic derangements | Complete understanding of the metabolic pathophysiology of obesity and diabetes | |
Author: Jerrold M. Olefsky, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of California, San Diego