UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) Director Anath Shalev, M.D., was invited to present at the International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD), held in Amsterdam, March 19-22.

According to event organizers, ATTD’s core objective is to spotlight pioneering technologies and therapies for diabetes management. The conference provides a world-class platform for clinicians and scientists to present, discuss, and exchange insights on the most rapidly evolving area of diabetes technology and treatments.

Shalev is a pioneer in the study of thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) in pancreatic islet biology and its role in diabetes. She presented in the session on Beta Cell Therapies for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), followed by a Q&A.

In her presentation, “Novel Type 1 Diabetes Therapies Targeting Endogenous Islet Cells” Shalev provided an update on her ongoing efforts to develop novel beta cell-targeting, non-immunosuppressive, oral medications for T1D.

She discussed how islet cell dysfunction including beta cell death, loss of beta cell insulin secretion and excessive alpha cell glucagon secretion are key features of T1D, yet approved therapies that address these processes are still lacking. Shalev’s lab discovered TXNIP as an attractive target in this regard and has developed treatment approaches to effectively inhibit its detrimental effects.

One approach, TIX100, is a new chemical entity specifically developed as an oral anti-diabetic drug to inhibit TXNIP. TIX100 was approved as an investigational new drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2024 and since then has been successfully dosed and well tolerated in 21 healthy subjects of the first-in-human study.

Shalev is the Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Juvenile Diabetes Research and professor in the Department of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.