Diabetes and other metabolic diseases affect over 500 million people worldwide, and their rates are rising. These diseases constitute a leading cause of death and disability, producing complications such as heart disease, kidney failure, and vision loss. Despite many available treatments, few truly address the underlying disease biology, leaving patients to manage symptoms rather than achieve lasting control or remission. The growing prevalence of these diseases places a heavy burden not only on individuals and families, but also on healthcare systems, underscoring the urgent need for new strategies that can prevent disease progression and reduce long-term complications.
Significance
Innovation
We’re advancing scientific understanding of the complex factors that drive type 1 and type 2 diabetes, including research into the function and dysfunction of insulin-producing beta cells, the mechanisms that drive the immune system to attack these cells, and the neural circuits in the brain that orchestrate metabolic processes. Additional research is focused on how the brain and neuroendocrine circuits regulate energy expenditure and glucose homeostasis, leveraging purpose-built animal models of human metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
Independently and in collaboration with our partners, we are advancing new investigational approaches to treat obesity and other metabolic disorders, including long-acting peptide therapeutics and small molecule therapeutics.
Approach
IBRI’s metabolic disease research combines advanced technology platforms with strong industry and academic partnerships. Using recombinant protein expression, CRISPR screening, and immunoassay development, we are interrogating the causes of disease. We are developing investigational therapies leveraging our expertise in peptide synthesis and bioconjugation and in incretin pharmacology, enabling our scientists to design, produce, and evaluate experimental incretin-based drugs (e.g., GLP-1 receptor agonists).
In collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company, we are developing new long-acting peptide therapeutics designed to increase glucose sensitivity and reduce excess energy storage. Collaborations with leading patient advocacy groups such as Breakthrough T1D and academic centers such as the University of Toronto further accelerate our ability to translate discoveries into medicines that can directly benefit patients. Together, these approaches allow IBRI to move from target discovery to the design and testing of next-generation therapies with potential to reshape the treatment landscape for diabetes and metabolic disease.
Our advanced iPSC platform enables us to generate brain cell models from reprogrammed human blood or skin cells
