Autoimmune Life Blog

In the 1950s, when Jack Wimpress, a talented Boeing aerodynamics engineer, and his late wife, Doris, a dedicated nurse, began their family, they were a statistical anomaly. “Three out of four of our children developed type 1 diabetes,” says Jack. “Everyone told us that this wasn’t possible.”

For most people, the onset of type 1 diabetes (T1D) seems to occur suddenly, often resulting in a trip to the emergency room with life-threatening complications.

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) and Seattle Children’s Research Institute (SCRI) are pioneering the use of gene editing techniques in efforts to control type 1 diabetes (T1D).

In March of 2015, 13-year-old Lizzie Blockhus experienced a week of being very tired and not feeling well. “I woke up in the middle of night and was dying of thirst,” she explains. “Then I was at my sister’s soccer game, dying of thirst again and I knew something wasn’t right.

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) has been awarded another leadership role in type 1 diabetes research. Carla Greenbaum, MD, BRI’s director of the Diabetes Research Program and Clinical Research Center, has been named chair of Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet.

In clinical trials, not all individuals respond in the same way to particular immunological therapies.

Researchers have found at the time of diagnosis with type 1 diabetes that many people continue to produce small amounts of insulin.

A labor of love to honor a much loved man provides funds for type 1 diabetes research at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI). The annual David J. Fanning Memorial Golf Tournament has raised nearly $200,000 since its inception in 2011.

Biomarkers are key tools for scientists studying autoimmune and other diseases. A biomarker is a measurable characteristic that reflects a normal biological process or disease state.

As a young man, Frank Dvorak had set his sights on a career in aviation. He was in his senior year at the Royal Military College of Canada when he received the life-changing diagnosis: type 1 diabetes. Because of his disease, he was grounded from flying.