Autoimmune Life Blog

Most toddlers spend their time finger painting and making mud pies.

As people who are affected by lupus know, it is one of the most puzzling and complex autoimmune diseases, according to Benaroya Research Institute scientists and Virginia Mason clinical researchers. Diagnosis is difficult because it can affect all the systems of the body.

Playing competitive soccer for most of her 26 years, Dani Foxhoven knows something about pain. Bumps and bruises are routine; rolled ankles are hardly unique. In high school, Dani made a slide tackle to block a shot, the ball fracturing her femur just above the knee (she made a full recovery).

Researchers at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) and Seattle Children’s Research Institute are making key progress in their quest for an immunotherapy that cures type 1 diabetes once and for all.

The Morris family was celebrating Christmas when they realized their nine-year-old son Jordan needed to go to the doctor. Recently he was losing weight, urinating often, extremely thirsty and exhausted. His mother, Leslie Morris, a nurse, suspected type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Three sisters, Jeanne, Marilyn and Carol Kleyn, all joined the early research project SERA and the follow-up TIP-RA study. Their mother Peggy Kleyn was diagnosed with RA around 76 years of age.

What does it mean when scientists say they want to “prevent” a disease?

Most parents would expect their six-year-old twin boys to have safe, carefree and somewhat similar childhood experiences. Imagine their surprise when Rachael Crickman and Stephanie Cooper learned their son Zephyr had a severe food allergy, while his twin brother, Zachary, did not.

"I was 18 and an undergraduate at the University of Washington. I was a member of the women’s rowing team and majoring in public health at the same time I was learning how to manage this new disease."

We survive with modern medicine. It has to be said. Peter and his squad of bad-ass dia-buddies are blessed with insulin, technology and care that have changed what it means to live with Type 1 Diabetes. And, they have reason to hope that the future will bring even better tools and outcomes.