New technology for early detection of Type 1 diabetes

TITLE: New technology for early detection of Type 1 diabetes

VISUAL: This video features text on screen explaining new research from RMIT scientists, who are looking into an early detection test for diabetes. The video features cutaways to scientists using microscopes as well as close up footage of cells and patients being treated for diabetes. The images align with the text on screen.

AUDIO: Ambient music plays throughout. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: Researchers are working on an early detection kit for type 1 diabetes.

Catching the disease at its earliest stages

offers hope for treatments to delay - or even prevent -

the onset of the condition, which affects over 542,000 children around the world.

There’s currently no cure for the disease and no early test.

By the time someone is diagnosed, about 70% of their insulin-producing cells are already destroyed.

Scientists are  combining lab-on-a-chip technology with a breakthrough discovery on markers in the blood that can predict the health of beta cells.

These cells are the body’s only way of making insulin.

Without insulin, people with diabetes can’t regulate their blood sugar.

This new sensor is coated with nanoparticles and changes colour if it detects the special markers in the blood.

Now scientists are working to miniaturise it onto a microfluidic chip.

The ultimate aim is a simple device to test blood and deliver results within minutes, revealing if someone is at risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

Researchers hope it could one day become a standard test for newborns

to catch the disease at its earliest stages.

Shaping. The. World.  

RMIT University.

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