Our physicians screen every new participant accepted into a study to ensure that they safely meet the criteria to participate. Your participation is voluntary and our research team continues to monitor your health and wellbeing during the length of the study. 

Your participation contributes to new and important scientific discoveries that can make a large impact on your community. There are also several potential benefits to you as an individual that could include: 

• Access to new and advanced therapies and treatment strategies before it's available to the public 
• Improvements in quality of life 
• Monetary incentives 

Our scientists conduct studies that require participation from individuals with pre-diabetes, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We also rely on non-diabetic, healthy participants to act as a control group.

Diabetes can have an impact on other conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease or cognitive abilities. It does this by increasing risk factors, affecting recovery time or even worsening the long-term prognosis.  Our research looks at ways to lessen or eliminate this impact, so patients with diabetes are able to manage these conditions as well as patients without diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with Type 1 diabetes or those on insulin should regularly monitor their blood glucose levels. Throughout the day, these levels naturally fluctuate due to various factors. If the changes stay within your target range, you might not notice them. However, if your blood glucose drops below your target range, typically under 70 mg/dL, it can become dangerous and requires immediate action to raise it back to a safe level. This condition is known as hypoglycemia or “low” blood glucose.

Symptoms of Hypoglycemia

• Confusion or can’t think straight • Shaking, jitteriness • Sweating • Hunger • Dizziness • Headache, irritability

Impaired Awareness

A common condition among those with Type 1 diabetes is the inability to recognize when their glucose levels are low. This condition, called impaired awareness of hypoglycemia, can be dangerous because those patients cannot tell by the symptoms they are feeling that they need to take action to bring glucose levels up. This phenomenon is more common among those who experience low blood glucose levels frequently, or those who have been living with Type 1 diabetes for ten years or more. Fortunately, existing and emerging diabetes technologies, combined with patient education, have the potential to restore symptom awareness in these patients and are currently being studied.

Why is hypoglycemia and impaired awareness research important?

• Identify people who may experience hypoglycemia without any warning signs or symptoms • On average, a person with Type 1 diabetes has two episodes of hypoglycemia per week and one or more episodes of severe hypoglycemia per year. • Help create new treatments and education for those who might experience hypoglycemia