The Heartland Diabetes Project
Has your child recently been diagnosed with Type I diabetes?
Would you be interested in participating in a clinical research study?
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease where the body has problems regulating the amount of sugar in the blood. This is because it does not make enough insulin or because it does not respond properly to the insulin that is being made. Insulin is a hormone that is produced in the pancreas that allows cells to use sugar and turn it into energy. The production of insulin occurs within special cell clusters in the pancreas called islets. Located inside these islets are the beta cells, the unique cells responsible for producing the body’s insulin.
We need your help!
- The Heartland Diabetes Project is a study in which our scientists work with patients who have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in order to learn more about the disease and to work towards a cure.
- We want to understand what changes occur in the immune system when someone is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
- If your child has diabetes, please consider donating a sample of their blood to our study.
- If it is possible, please also consider donating samples of their siblings’ blood, as this can also greatly aid our work.
What will happen if you decide to help?
- If you choose to help with our study, the study coordinator will meet with you at the end of your doctor’s appointment.
- The study coordinator will explain our study and ask for your consent for a sample of your child’s blood.
- The study coordinator will accompany you to the lab to have the sample drawn.
- That’s it for now! (We may ask for a second sample up to one year later at another doctor’s appointment and you can decide what you would like to do at that time.)
Our Study
We are studying Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease. This means the body’s own immune system is to blame. In Type 1 diabetes, specialized white blood cells that usually protect the body from disease get a signal to attack and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells located in the pancreas.
If your child has diabetes and you would like to participate in the Heartland Diabetes Project, the blood sample we obtain will be used to study how those specialized white blood cells interact with pancreatic islets and will help us reach our goal of finding a cure for diabetes.
For more information, or to join our study, please contact Katie Guinn at 402.836.9409 or katie.guinn@unmc.edu.