Caffeine-Triggered Cells Help Control Blood Sugar in Diabetic Mice

Scientists engineered human cells to produce a molecule that stimulates insulin secretion in the presence of caffeine.

Written byDiana Kwon

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Scientists have engineered human cells that boost the production of insulin in response to caffeine. These modified cells could one day help treat patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers suggested in their report, published yesterday (June 19) in Nature Communications.

“You could completely integrate this into your lifestyle,” study coauthor Martin Fussenegger, a biotechnologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, tells The Guardian. “You have a tea or coffee in the morning, another after lunch, and another at dinner, depending on how much drug you need to get your glucose back down.”

Fussenegger and his colleagues engineered human embryonic kidney cells that produce a synthetic version of human glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), a molecule that prompts the release of insulin, in the ...

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Meet the Author

Diana Kwon
Diana is a freelance science journalist who covers the life sciences, health, and academic life. She’s a regular contributor to The Scientist and her work has appeared in several other publications, including Scientific American, Knowable, and Quanta. Diana was a former intern at The Scientist and she holds a master’s degree in neuroscience from McGill University. She’s currently based in Berlin, Germany.
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