Diabetes group talk

Diabetes Ireland Research Alliance (DIRA) in association with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) are holding a type one diabetes research development meeting in The Greenhills Hotel, Limerick on Tuesday at 7.30pm. DIRA is a subsidiary group of Diabetes Ireland.
Experts will provide information on the latest cutting-edge type one diabetes research and how to help find the cure.
Type one diabetes is an auto-immune disease and tends to occur in childhood or early adult life. It always requires treatment with insulin therapy. It is not caused by lifestyle choices and cannot be prevented or cured.
The development of an artificial pancreas is a long-sought-after system of insulin pumps and glucose sensors that deliver insulin to diabetics, mimicking the function of a real pancreas.
While the current state of insulin replacement therapy is appreciated for its life-saving capability, the task of manually managing the blood sugar levels with insulin alone is arduous and inadequate for over 300 Clare children and adults with type one diabetes.
The goal of the artificial pancreas is to improve insulin replacement therapy so that blood glucose control is practically normal and to ease the burden of therapy for  patients with type one diabetes.
Type one diabetics’ daily routine involves frequent testing of blood sugars.
Cambridge University researcher, Janet Allen, who is working on the artificial pancreas project, will be one the guest speakers. The project focuses on trying to solve one particular aspect of living with type one diabetes – controlling glucose levels overnight.