Engineering a lettuce, engineering a cure

Type 1 diabetes, the autoimmune disease that destroys the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, is a widespread life-threatening disease that requires daily injections of insulin to maintain the proper levels of blood sugar. A professor at University of Central Florida, Henry Daniell, believes he has found the cure in the form of a GMO.

Using genetically engineered lettuce containing the insulin gene, Daniell believes he is able to train the body to once again produce insulin. Using GMO lettuce freeze-dried, he forms a capsule. When the lettuce cells break down in the intestines exposing the insulin, the immune system responds by producing its own.

Thus far, on the experimental front, Daniell has succeeded in bringing diabetic mice to produce their own insulin after only eight weeks of treatment.