Jorge Ferrer, a CIBER researcher in his thematic area of diabetes and associated metabolic diseases (CIBERDEM), has been recognized with the prestigious Albert Renold award at the Congress of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) held in Lisbon from 11 toSeptember 15.
Leader of the Genomic Beta Cell Programming Group of the August Pi I Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and professor of the Imperial College of London, Ferrer has seen his contribution to the research on the islets of Langerhans, the ultimate goal of the last of theAlbert Renold Award.
Jorge Ferrer stands out for his investigations on the beta cells of insulin producers and has created maps of the DNA sequences of our genome that are used as switches to activate genes in the beta cells of insulin producers.As he explains, “these studies show that the variants that affect the genetic predisposition to develop diabetes almost always alter the sequence of these beta cell switches, instead of affecting the sequence of genes.This shows that the genetic mechanisms that predispose to type 2 diabetes affect the regulation of genes in these cells. ”
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In other studies, the new Albert Renold Prize and Ciberdem researcher has generated genomic maps showTypes of genes that do not encode proteins, non -coding RNAS, some of which are part of the same cell network regulated by other genetic defects involved in the development of diabetes.
According to Jorge Ferrer, "these research demonstrates how new genomic technologies can help identify the molecular bases of diabetes, demonstrating that insulin producing cells are ideal targets to develop more effective treatments for diabetes."