During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) asked Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Dr. Griffin Rodgers about the future of type 1 diabetes research.
00:00Senator Moran. Chairman Collins, thank you very much for this hearing. Generally in the Senate I feel like I'm at least the same age as my colleagues. I don't feel old. In today's hearing I feel significantly older than the audience, but I'm delighted that you're all here, and your presence makes a difference.
00:18It highlights for us on a regular basis the importance of medical research, and it's always useful for us to see the individual lives that are impacted. Things can be about numbers and they can be about dollars, but in order to get our attention and get the necessary action on our part, it's useful to see that humans, our friends, our neighbors, our constituents, our family members are impacted.
00:48So I appreciate all of you being here today and making the case for sufficient resources necessary. And while Senator Collins has not yet introduced her bill, she has announced the intended introduction, and Senator Collins, I won't say that I'm going to co-sponsor the bill until I meet with my juvenile diabetes kids from Kansas so I can tell them first.
01:15But trusting your judgment and your expertise and your expertise and knowledge that you and Senator Shaheen, your dedication, there's a likely supporter from Kansas for the passage of this legislation.
01:29And so, again, I'm delighted that thank you.
01:40There are many things about working in the United States Senate, being a member of Congress, that bring challenges to them. This is one of them. But this is the circumstance in which most of us, if not all of us, get significant reward when we see the opportunities we have to make a difference in the world.
01:57And I've said numerous times when we've debated and discussed funding and support for NIH, the business that we're in and the same business we're in this morning is to provide hope, hope that there's a brighter future, hope that there's fewer people affected by diabetes, hopeful that the cures and treatments are more effective, and that we can rid ourselves, our families and our children from juvenile diabetes.
02:21So I'm really pleased to be here and lend my support to this effort.
02:28Dr. Rogers, you've been an expert, provided your expertise. I thank you for your public service and commitment to finding cures and treatments.
02:37Tell me, if you would, you've been here since 2007. What's the most impactful advances in understanding and treating type 1 diabetes that you've had in your tenure? But more importantly, tell me what the future looks like.
02:58Well, thank you, Senator Moran, for that question. I think I would just highlight a few, some of which I mentioned in my opening statement.
03:07The idea now in this period of time that we actually have a drug available that's FDA approved that can prevent by at least three years and a substantial number of individuals the development of clinical type 1 diabetes I think is a very important advance.
03:27One that we hope to replicate because we have, you know, on the drawing board or in the pipeline a series of other drugs that be used either alone or in combination that might yield equivalent or perhaps even better results.
03:44Having cellular therapies now to be a biological cure is something that I'm very excited about and that possibility to report to you perhaps in the two years from now or maybe four years from now of that success is very important to me.
04:05We have this TEDDY study that, you know, this TEDDY study that, you know, involved following these 8,000 kids.
04:10We have five million samples that the kids and their parents have generously provided to us.
04:17It's already giving us, you know, ideas.
04:20We know, for example, even before we do the final analysis, we have been able to detect proteins in the serum of kids who are at high risk that may determine or predict several months in advance the likelihood that a kid will develop clinical.
04:39So to get these kids into preventive studies is very important.
04:44And sort of moving forward, thinking about using your own stem cells, pluripotent stem cells to get them encapsulated.
04:56We're working with chemical engineers to develop a way to expand and to get these cells so that the antibodies don't get in to attack it as it did in the first place, but to get the insulin out.
05:10That's really extremely exciting.
05:13We're taking a page from the oncology and the immunologist field.
05:20They're using something that you may have heard of, CAR T cells, and applying that technology as a way to prevent the ongoing autoimmune disease potentially in individuals with type 1 diabetes from attacking either their existing cells or potentially transplanted cells.
05:39And that's something that I really look forward to reporting to you in the upcoming meetings.
05:44But I'm very excited about these results.
05:46And I have to say, again, with a lot of thanks and appreciation for the special diabetes program because this would not be possible at all without your ongoing support.
05:57I usually hear CAR T cells in regard to cancer research and cures.
06:01And it's nice to know the potential opportunity that exists here because we've seen such significant outcomes, improvement outcomes in cancer.
