Nestlé Accelerates Research on Diabetes

NIHS will use the technology to study the biological mechanisms of blood glucose control at the molecular level, and to better understand how this goes wrong when people develop diabetes.

Mar 13 2012 --- The Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) is developing an innovative research programme in diabetes.

The research is based on living models of cells of the human pancreas, which play a key role in the control of blood glucose. The NIHS is creating the models using stem cell technology, licensed from ViaCyte. The research does not involve any human embryos. Instead the NIHS will use stem cells created from human adult cells, using a pioneering method of reverse engineering.

NIHS will use the technology to study the biological mechanisms of blood glucose control at the molecular level, and to better understand how this goes wrong when people develop diabetes.

In the future, the NIHS will extend its use of this breakthrough technology to address other aspects of metabolic health, as well as gastrointestinal health and brain health. Our ultimate goal is to use the research to develop personalized nutrition solutions to help promote health and help prevent chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

Professor Emmanuel E Baetge, Head of the Nestlé Institute of Health Science, said: "The technology we are licensing from ViaCyte will not only provide a unique tool for modeling human diabetes in the laboratory – it will also extend and complement our current scientific capability, and supports the mission of the Nestlé Institute of Health Science to become a world leader in the area of personalised nutrition for health and chronic diseases."