Galway Bay fm newsroom - NUI Galway scientists have used virtual humans for innovative research on diabetes.
Researchers from NUIG's School of Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, have created biomedical avatars of type 1 diabetes patients to enable new opportunities for treatment and diagnosis.
Their research, published this week, in the international journal 'Nature Computational Sciences', showed that simulating disease effects at an individual level explains how different people respond to insulin and how diet may improve treatment outcomes.
Type 1 diabetes is prevalent in children and impacts patients during their entire lives.
The disease influences insulin production, with knock-on effects also leading to disturbed metabolism and coronary heart disease, associated with early mortality.
NUIG study leader Professor Ines Thiele says their results not only highlighted the key role of glucose in the diabetes context, but also suggested new therapeutic avenues for patients.
