Faustman

Dr. Faustman said the drug costs about $15 a vial.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

In the larger study, Dr. Faustman said, the plan is for participants to get injections six weeks apart for as long as 18 months.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

"These were people with almost-dead pancreases," said Denise Faustman, director of the immunobiology laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, who led the study.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

Earlier research in mice by Dr. Faustman showed that such cells are vulnerable to elevated levels of TNF.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

Dr. Faustman said treating the disease in the U.S. costs about $17 billion annually.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

Dr. Faustman cautioned that the results don't amount to a cure and they need to be confirmed in a larger study, which is expected to begin enrolling patients within a year.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

"You can't yet throw your insulin syringes away," Dr. Faustman said.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

Dr. Faustman said she and her colleagues identified BCG as a possible therapy while screening a library of generic drugs.

Drug Offers Hope In Diabetes Study Ron Winslow 2011

The fact that Faustman was able to uncover and identify this specific group of flawed autoreactive T cells escaping out of the bone marrow was hugely promising.

The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008

At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Denise Faustman, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory, may well be on the verge of developing just such a cure for type 1 diabetes.

The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008