T1D Tuesday: Encapsulation

For the month of November - Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Month - my Monday Random Round Up goes on hiatus, making way for T1D Tuesday. 

Let's get educated, motivated, and moving on making Type One, Type None. 

Donate to my cousin Ella's efforts by clicking right here.

I can't even come up with a cute title for this post, because this concept just blows my mind.

The image above sounds wonderful, right? But the really exciting stuff is in the details: Encapsulation is basically a synthetic material being created to - you guessed it - encapsulate the cells in the body that produce insulin. These cells could then be transplanted into diabetics, allowing them to theoretically live like they are diabetes-free for two years.

Did you hear that? Allowing them to live like they are NO LONGER DIABETIC. Mind: Blown.

Here's a more science-based summation, direct from the JDRF website:
This protective, semi-permeable shielding will be designed to allow beta cells in islets to sense glucose and produce insulin, but be protected from immune destruction by two types of attack-autoimmune attack that caused diabetes in the first place, and the alloimmune rejection of foreign tissue transplanted into the body. 

image

This incredible step bounding leap of an advancement needs more time and money and brain power put in to make it truly successful, but the science is real and the idea is actively being tested. Last year JDRF was able to fund a 4.3 million dollar research project on encapsulation alone. And if you donated to the cause you were a part of that. Thanks!

Want to be a part this year? Click here to donate to my cousin Ella's fundraising efforts. A nine year old diabetic herself, encapsulation is a real possibility to have an effect on her life. Science is incredible.