The Science Students of XYZ School Invite You to Learn About the Future of Diabetes... 

OUR FIRST STEP:  Learn about diabetes...

        Currently, diabetes is an incurable disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows sugar to enter the cells of the body to be used for energy.  Insulin is produced in, and released by, the pancreas (pictured below).

        Diabetes mellitus (or juvenile-onset diabetes) occurs mostly in children, but can occur at any age.  These Type 1 sufferers have low insulin or no insulin at all and must receive insulin every day.  If this type goes untreated, a life-threatening condition called ketoacidosis can develop very quickly and coma and/or death can follow.

       Type 1 is considered an autoimmune disease because the immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas (beta cells) that produce the insulin.  Scientists believe that genetic and environmental factors such as viruses or food proteins may somehow trigger the immune system to destroy these cells.

OUR NEXT STEP:  Go back in time...