Hi All,

I received the below in an email from Sue Root, one of the CT State
Captains. This is EXCITING news!

Stacy Lavery
Team Maryland Captain, JLN Campaign



Here's a short but, significant update on the progress of Drs.
Faustman/Nathan's Human Clinical Research Project.

Just to recap: Dr. Faustman's 2-limb treatment is attempting to
stop/reverse/eliminate the underlying autoimmune disease. Once
eliminated, regeneration of insulin-producing islet cells can occur
leading to a cure for type I diabetes. Massachusetts General
Hospital, The Iacocca Foundation, and individuals around the country
have been helping to raise the$11.5 million needed to take this
research through a phase I human clinical trial to test increasing
doses of BCG (substance 1 of the 2-limb treatment).

The pre-clinical trial work that Dr. Faustman's lab has been
conducting over the last 2 years includes drawing 100's of blood
samples from diabetics at all ages and stages of the disease ( 3-
weeks after diagnoses to over 50 years living with diabetes) in order
to develop the first human blood assay (test) for autoimmune disease
based on the common defected T cells found in NOD mice and humans.
This assay has 2 parts. The first part is to target and separate the
live defected T cells from samples of whole blood drawn from diabetic
patients. The second part is to count these defected T cells. (As
doses of BCG are given, we anticipate that the # of defected T cells
will decrease as they are killed off. The developed blood assay
measures this depletion for the first time for diabetics). Dr.
Faustman's lab has also been working to "automate" this 2-part assay
for the human clinical trial using BCG.

Dr. Faustman is now putting blood samples from humans with diabetes
into the machine in order to test the reliability of the first part
of the automation process of separating the targeted live T cells
from whole blood. Previously, she has been doing this only by hand.

This human clinical project is unique because the scientists involved
are attempting to target the disease and eliminate it without immune
suppression. Also, and most importantly, the complicated and time-
consuming task of developing a reliable human blood assay for
autoimmune disease is essential to the success of testing doses of a
substance or drug, in this case BCG. The ability to isolate and count
the targeted defected T cells with this automation process will
enable the scientists to increase doses of BCG accordingly as the
number of defected T cells decrease.

This research project continues to progress with the help from those
who support it.

Please pass this information along to those who would be interested.
If you no longer wish to receive updated emails, please let me know
ASAP.

Sue Root
Susan_Root@...
www.bikethemilesforhumantrials.com