Everyone knows that science has been booming at an insanely quick rate for the past decade. The world has erupted with stem cells, tissue engineering, cures for diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease all in the past ten years! But what about the next ten years? MSNBC predicts that stem cells will be the norm, tissue engineering will be a replacement for most major surgeries with the remaining surgeries to be preformed by robots, and cures to widespread diseases will be perfected. If you’re not very fond of reading, watch this video The Year 2017 and get a glipse of what is to come (the video will play after a 30 second commercial).

Type 1 diabetes is an illness in which the body’s immune system kills off insulin produced naturally in the body. As a result, victims of type 1 diabetes have to administer regular insulin shots to themselves in order to control their blood-sugar levels. This affects over 340,000 people in the United States alone!

Imagine changing those hundreds of thousands of peoples everyday lives. Scientists have conducted a risky trial and successfully injected stem cells into 15 patients with type 1 diabetes. Thirteen of the 15 patients have ditched their insulin shots and can have been able to live healthy lives ever since the treatment!

Alternative treatments are also still in the testing phase, however this treatment has the potential to be the cure to diabetes because it’s has undergone Phase III research. This treatment’s problem is the wide opposition to stem cell research (like President Bush) that will push it back for an indefinite amount of time. This cure could change the life of 1 in every 800 people with type 1 diabetes, support stem cell research because its potential could soon change your life.

Stem cell research over at the University of California, Irvine is booming! Dr. Ken Cho is on his way to finding the cure for diabetes. He has discovered over 50 genes in mouse embryonic stem cells that promote insulin-producing cells. If he is able to activate these genes in mice, he’s one step closer to finding out how to activate them in humans. Activating these cells will mean that a diabetic person’s life-style can go back to normal with their cells producing insulin for them.

-Amy Shah

About one in every 800 people in the US has diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus, also known as type 1 diabetes or child-onset diabetes, is a chronic, autoimmune disorder. It is characterized by the pancreas’s inability to produce insulin, which results in high blood glucose levels.

Diabetes mellitus has been solely linked to the immune system, however a research group called SickKids has been looking for a link with the nervous system. They recently found a connection between the pancreas’s ability to secrete insulin and sensory (pain) nerves. They found that this sensory control circuit doesn’t release enough neuropeptides to activate insulin secretion. By researching on diabetic mice, the SickKids research group, along with the help of University of Toronto, found a way to supply neuropeptides and reverse diabetes in these mice. They have plans to extend this study to diabetes insipidus as well and this amazing discovery can soon be perfected to be extended to humans. The cure for diabetes lies in the close future.

-Amy Shah