Dapagliflozin: a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor in development for type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a growing worldwide epidemic. Patients face lifelong therapy to control hyperglycemia and prevent the associated complications. There are many medications, with varying mechanisms, available for the treatment of T2DM, but almost all target the declining insulin sensitivity and secretion that are associated with disease progression. Medications with such insulin-dependent mechanisms of action often lose efficacy over time, and there is increasing interest in the development of new antidiabetes medications that are not dependent upon insulin. One such approach is through the inhibition of renal glucose reuptake. Dapagliflozin, the first of a class of selective sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, reduces renal glucose reabsorption and is currently under development for the treatment of T2DM. Here, we review the literature relating to the preclinical and clinical development of dapagliflozin

The AEgIS experiment at CERN: Measuring antihydrogen free-fall in earth's gravitational field to test WEP with antimatter

The AEgIS (Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) experiment is designed with the objective to test the weak equivalence principle with antimatter by studying the free fall of antihydrogen in the Earth's gravitational field. A pulsed cold beam of antihydrogen will be produced by charge exchange between cold Ps excited in Rydberg state and cold antiprotons. Finally the free fall will be measured by a classical moir\ue9 deflectometer. The apparatus being assembled at the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN will be described, then the advancements of the experiment will be reported: positrons and antiprotons trapping measurements, Ps two-step excitation and a test-measurement of antiprotons deflection with a small scale moir\ue9 deflectometer

Emulsion detectors for the antihydrogen detection in AEgIS

The AEgIS experiment at CERN aims to perform the first direct measurement of gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter by measuring the deviation of a cold antihydrogen beam in the Earth gravitational field. The design of the experiment has been recently updated to include emulsion films as position sensitive detector. The submicrometric position accuracy of emulsions leads indeed to a significant improvement of the experimental sensitivity. We present results of preliminary tests and discuss perspectives for the final measurement

Probing antimatter gravity – The AEGIS experiment at CERN

The weak equivalence principle states that the motion of a body in a gravitational field is independent of its structure or composition. This postulate of general relativity has been tested to very high precision with ordinary matter, but no relevant experimental verification with antimatter has ever been carried out. The AEGIS experiment will measure the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen to ultimately 1% precision. For this purpose, a pulsed horizontal antihydrogen beam with a velocity of several 100 m s−1 will be produced. Its vertical deflection due to gravity will be detected by a setup consisting of material gratings coupled with a position-sensitive detector, operating as a moiré deflectometer or an atom interferometer. The AEGIS experiment is installed at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator, currently the only facility in the world which produces copious amounts of low-energy antiprotons. The construction of the setup has been going on since 2010 and is nearing completion. A proof-of-principle experiment with antiprotons has demonstrated that the deflection of antiparticles by a few μm due to an external force can be detected. Technological and scientific development pertaining to specific challenges of the experiment, such as antihydrogen formation by positronium charge exchange or the position-sensitive detection of antihydrogen annihilations, is ongoing

Direct detection of antiprotons with the Timepix3 in a new electrostatic selection beamline

We present here the first results obtained employing the Timepix3 for the detection and tagging of annihilations of low energy antiprotons. The Timepix3 is a recently developed hybrid pixel detector with advanced Time-of-Arrival and Time-over-Threshold capabilities and has the potential of allowing precise kinetic energy measurements of low energy charged particles from their time of flight. The tagging of the characteristic antiproton annihilation signature, already studied by our group, is enabled by the high spatial and energy resolution of this detector. In this study we have used a new, dedicated, energy selection beamline (GRACE). The line is symbiotic to the AEgIS experiment at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator and is dedicated to detector tests and possibly antiproton physics experiments. We show how the high resolution of the Timepix3 on the Time-of-Arrival and Time-over-Threshold information allows for a precise 3D reconstruction of the annihilation prongs. The presented results point at the potential use of the Timepix3 in antimatter-research experiments where a precise and unambiguous tagging of antiproton annihilations is required

Probing antimatter gravity – The AEGIS experiment at CERN

The weak equivalence principle states that the motion of a body in a gravitational field is independent of its structure or composition. This postulate of general relativity has been tested to very high precision with ordinary matter, but no relevant experimental verification with antimatter has ever been carried out. The AEGIS experiment will measure the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen to ultimately 1% precision. For this purpose, a pulsed horizontal antihydrogen beam with a velocity of several 100 m s−1 will be produced. Its vertical deflection due to gravity will be detected by a setup consisting of material gratings coupled with a position-sensitive detector, operating as a moiré deflectometer or an atom interferometer. The AEGIS experiment is installed at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator, currently the only facility in the world which produces copious amounts of low-energy antiprotons. The construction of the setup has been going on since 2010 and is nearing completion. A proof-of-principle experiment with antiprotons has demonstrated that the deflection of antiparticles by a few μm due to an external force can be detected. Technological and scientific development pertaining to specific challenges of the experiment, such as antihydrogen formation by positronium charge exchange or the position-sensitive detection of antihydrogen annihilations, is ongoing