GRA Eminent Scholar Jin-Xiong She sheds new light on a disease affecting 3 million Americans

Each year, 30,000 Americans – about half of them children – are told their lives are forever changed.

That’s because they’re diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an illness that brings a lifetime of insulin dependency and potentially life-threatening health problems.

Dr. Jin-Xiong She is working to keep that diagnosis from ever happening.

A GRA Eminent Scholar at Georgia Health Sciences University, Dr. She is part of the largest, most comprehensive study of Type 1 diabetes to date – one that leading diabetes organizations hope may provide long-sought answers about what causes the disease.

Called TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young), the study has already screened more than 500,000 babies to identify those who are genetically predisposed to developing diabetes.

And for 8,000 babies and children in the U.S. and Europe, researchers are taking a much closer look: They’re monitoring each child for a full 15 years, carefully tracking as many factors as possible, from immunizations and illnesses to diet and drinking water. Dr. She and his research colleagues believe the enormous amount of data from this study will give them vital clues to what environmental factors trigger the disease.

With this knowledge, they hope to be able to point the way for high-risk individuals to lower their chances of developing Type 1 diabetes.

Because of Dr. She’s role in developing and conducting the study, Georgia babies are among those being monitored. “The research done in Georgia will most likely show Georgia environmental triggers,” Dr. She says – yielding clues as to how Georgians at high risk for diabetes can reduce their chances of getting sick.

Dr. She’s insight into diabetes diagnosis doesn’t stop with the massive TEDDY study. In a complementary research project, he is creating new tests that will provide an earlier warning when a patient begins developing diabetes.

“Today, when we test for diabetes, we can predict the onset well before symptoms begin,” Dr. She says. But current screening tests, he explains, don’t see diabetes coming far enough in advance for doctors to stop it from progressing.

As a result, he is working on simple blood and urine tests that will give doctors more lead time to treat the disease. Where current tests look for antibodies that show a person is developing diabetes, the new blood and urine tests will look for signature changes that take place before those antibodies are produced.

Dr. She is designing similar blood and urine tests for cancers of the ovaries, kidneys and bladder. These tests could be used instead of biopsies, which can disturb tumors and cause cancerous cells to spread to other parts of the body.

Dr. She hopes to have the new screening tests ready for clinical use within three years. The tests will be invaluable to scientists investigating new diabetes and cancer treatments, because finding high-risk individuals before they get sick is a key to conducting clinical trials of new, preventive medicines.

While Dr. She is excited about the value of his discoveries for other researchers, he’s determined not to allow the benefits of his work be confined to the lab. That’s why he founded Jinfiniti Biosciences, a company to license and commercialize the scientific breakthroughs of his lab, putting newly deveoped technology into the hands of real doctors.

“Moving laboratory findings into clinical practice is a major thrust of groups like the National Institutes of Health, but the transition is a tough one,” says Dr. She. “There are many wonderful scientific discoveries, but the vast majority never translate into medical practice. Very few people are going to knock on your door to further develop the technology. That is what startup companies are trying to do – they’re trying to take discoveries to the next step so that big companies become interested.”

Dr. She’s research brings Georgia a remarkable amount of outside investment. He generates between $4 million and $8 million  for MCG’s Center for Biotechnology and Genomics, which he directs, and another $3-$4 million in NIH grant funding to support other aspects of his research each year.

The state has the Georgia Research Alliance to thank for bringing Dr. She to GHSU from his previous position at the University of Florida. “They played a major role in recruiting me,” he says. “Without them, I wouldn’t be in Georgia.”