More than 80 young scientists from all over the world informed themselves about the current status of diabetes research at the DZD Diabetes Research School DRS17 and the subsequent Insulin Receptor Meeting IR 2017, which took place from April 19th to April 22nd in Nice. International experts gave an overview of their research. The focus was on the translation of scientific results into clinical practice and new concepts for diabetes therapy.

The DZD Diabetes Research School is designed for doctoral students and postdocs as well as scientifically active physicians in the field of diabetes research. "At the DRS17, internationally recognized scientists from Europe and the USA gave insights into their work in overview lectures," said Martin Hrabě de Angelis, member of the board of the DZD. The event was opened with the "German-French Diabetes Symposium". There Patrick Collombat (University of Nice) presented the latest results from beta cell research. Agnès Lehuen (University of Paris V Descartes) reported on MAIT cells, a new type of immune cells that are associated with the microbiome and may be relevant to both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Finally, Philippe Froguel (University of Lille) underscored with his data the important role of genetic and epigenetic factors in diabetes.

Translation of scientific results
Successful examples of the transfer of research results into practice were the focus of the session "Translating Science to Clinics". Henning Beck-Nielsen (University of Odense) emphasized the importance of comprehensively understanding the different physiological causes of type 2 diabetes for developing new effective therapies. Hans-Jürgen Wörle (Boehringer Ingelheim) presented an antidiabetic drug, an SGLT-2 inhibitor, which may offer further application possibilities for cardiovascular diseases, one of the most common sequelae of diabetes.
In the session “Future Concepts for Diabetes Therapy”, Ron Kahn (Harvard Medical School) and Stephen O’Rahilly (University of Cambridge) illuminated the extremely important role that adipose tissue plays in metabolic flexibility, which can be a crucial factor for human metabolic disorders.
The young scientists listened with great interest to the lecture by Jeffrey Flier (Harvard Medical School), who reported about the difficulties of reproducing results from biological research as well as about the importance of scientific publications.
The DRS not only offers the participants the opportunity to listen to the lectures of renowned diabetes scientists, but also to talk directly with them. Here in poster sessions, the young scientists can discuss their results with the diabetes experts as well as other participants. “For us young researchers, it is inspiring to meet such outstanding researchers who have carried out basic research in the field of insulin receptor science. We also had the opportunity to share our research with the other research school participants. Many of us will return home with new and fresh ideas," said Theresia Gutmann, a doctoral student from the Paul Langerhans Institute, summarizing her impressions.

IR 2017: Scientific lectures at the highest level
The DZD Diabetes Research School always takes place in combination with major diabetes conferences such as the Insulin Receptor Meeting. The young scientists were thus able to benefit from scientific lectures at the highest level, held by leading scientists in the research field. In the final lecture, Michael Czech (University of Massachusetts Medical School) gave a brief overview of the progress made in the past decades and gave an outlook on the challenges facing next generation researchers. He emphasized that new technologies such as CRISP / CAS can play a role in the future.

DZD Diabetes Research School – a successful concept
The concept of the DZD Diabetes Research School has proven to be successful. The participants were particularly enthusiastic that they could exchange ideas with so many high-profile experts and establish important contacts and networks with colleagues. In particular, the speakers praised the special concept of the DZD Diabetes Research School: "The event provides a unique opportunity for young researchers to get informed about the latest results from diabetes research and to discuss these with the experts," said Ron Kahn, who acted as a speaker at the Research School for the second time.
The next DZD Diabetes Research School will be held in Berlin in 2018 in combination with the EASD Annual Meeting.