nPOD invited to present at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) meeting

nPOD is always looking for innovative ways to collaborate with health care providers in order to identify and provide rare and precious type 1 diabetic specimens to our investigators. Dr. Alberto Pugliese, nPOD Co-Executive Director, was invited to speak at their annual meeting. He proposed a major strategic initiative aimed at identifying potential donors with recent onset of the disease which will ultimately help nPOD achieve its goals. The group was enthusiastic about collaborating with nPOD and our Director, Suzanne Ball, is directly involved with the plan and protocol that is now being developed. nPOD is proud to be a sponsor at the Advanced Emergency Medicine Conference in 2012. This is a high priority and we are implementing plans to bring this project into fruition in the shortest time possible. Please stay tuned for updates.

New investigator collaboration

The cause of type 1 diabetes is not yet known, and there are many hypotheses as to what it could be. One leading idea is that the disease is caused by persistent viral infections. To help our investigators get closer to discovering the cause, and hopefully a cure, the nPOD team has held several webinars to provide our investigators with a forum for sharing and discussing their interesting results from particular cases examined. Recently, a viral workgroup has formed from these discussions to answer the question of viral presence in nPOD tissues. With over 30 participants, a strategic working plan has already been developed and currently even smaller groups are moving forward with immunostaining and RNA analyses.