Autoimmune Life Blog

When Grace Pilo is in a ballet performance, she uses a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump to make sure her blood sugar stays in a healthy range throughout the show.

It was the dead of the night in Brisbane, Australia. Maree Doolan, then a nurse, was in the middle of a long shift. “We were messing around and decided to take our blood sugars,” she says. “I was shocked that mine was quite high, in the 280 range.

The discovery of insulin 100 years ago transformed type 1 diabetes (T1D) from a death sentence to a chronic illness. Yet T1D is still a relentless disease with no cure.

After six miles and several hours of hiking in the heat of the day, Andrea Williams reached her destination: A view of Mount Rainier so close and clear that she couldn’t even fit the whole mountain in a photo. Then she checked her blood sugar.

Words like “immunocompromised” are broad by design: They’re meant to encompass how a wide variety of conditions impact the immune system.

Before BRI Lab Aide Noah Biru had degrees in engineering and biochemistry — and was headed to Yale to pursue a PhD in immunology — he was a little kid who wanted to help his mom.

We’ve been living in a world of COVID-19 for over a year. In the face of a pandemic, BRI’s vision — a healthy immune system for everyone — has become more important than ever. We’re so thankful for the incredible support from you, our community.

When Micah Mansfield learned that he could help scientists better understand the immune system through the Sound Life Project, he didn’t think twice about signing up.

Raising a child with type 1 diabetes takes patience. Blood sugars rise and fall unpredictably, affecting nearly every aspect of daily life. It takes attention to detail.

To understand what causes type 1 diabetes (T1D), imagine a spy novel. It starts with a hero, the T-cell, that roams your body like James Bond. The T-cell hunts down enemies — bacteria and viruses — and snuffs them out. Then something goes terribly wrong: The hero becomes a villain.