Harvard University is now claiming that after a 15-year research, Doug Melton and his team has found the cure to the debilitating diabetes disease. The research has proved utilization of human embryonic stem cells that could initiate growth of billions of precious insulin-secreting cells that can treat the disease in less than 10 days.
The advance breakthrough was centered to human embryonic stem cells to turn into beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Research shows that it regulates the blood sugar of diabetic mice once the cells were injected to them. "We can cure their diabetes right away- in less than 10 days," stem cell researcher Doug Melton claims to NPR.
Melton has been a determined researcher since he found out that his daughter Emma has diabetes at the age of 14, while his son, Sam has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 6 months old.
As the statistics of the disease is continuously growing, it is expected to be the answer for the growing numbers of diabetes sufferers who are dependent on insulin injection, as it only supplies insulin for a particular time, but doesn't necessarily curing or preventing it's occurrence.
According to National Diabetes Statistics report for 2014 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in, 9.3 percent of the entire population or 29.1 million people in the United States are suffering from diabetes. 3 million Americans have Type 1 Diabetes which is fully dependent on insulin.
Diabetes remains the 7th leading cause of death in the United States in 2010. The complications span from blindness, kidney failure, to even limb amputation.
Melton's insulin breakthrough is expected to be initiated to humans in the next few years. At present, he is also working on the utilization of 'induced pluripotent stem cell,' which is another kind of stem cell which will not destroy any embryos.
