Cells Offer Hope for Type 1 Diabetes

Note: CTSI's Clinical Research Services (CRS) provided nursing, sample processing and dietician services for protocol study of pancreatic islet transplants to treat Type 1 diabetes.

By Jacque Wilson via CNN

The e-mail ended with a question that belied the author's pain: "It's a small world, isn't it?"

Michael Schofield read the message from Elizabeth Baptiste again. Baptiste worked at AT&T, just like him. She had three sons, like him. And her youngest, Michael, was the donor who had changed his life.

"It sent shivers down my body, you know, because you don't expect..."

Schofield's voice, with its lingering Liverpool accent, trails off.

Schofield, 53, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1982. People who have Type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin, a hormone the body needs to convert sugar and starches into energy. Their white blood cells attack and destroy the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas.

Read full story at CNN.com