Lately a lot of attention has been focused on the Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $463 million. With deep pockets and medical moxie like that-would you expect the potential cure for type 1 diabetes to come from anywhere else?

In 1999, a MGH research study identified a gene malfunction that plays a pivotal role in the development of type 1 diabetes. The study showed that a gene required to help teach the immune system to recognize so-called "self" proteins is somehow inactivated, causing type 1 diabetes. Sounds like tricky stuff, but it prefaced a strong foundation for the prototype to cure type 1 diabetes. In 2001 MGH researchers found that by retraining the animal's immune system not to attack insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, it would correct the autoimmune dysfunction causing type 1 diabetes. This research, in concert with a discovery made in 2003, whereby spleen cells appear to develop into insulin-producing cells, provided a revolutionary approach to curing type 1 diabetes. The National Institute of Health has recently confirmed this as a potential cure for type 1 diabetes.

Think of the illustrious contributions Harvard has bestowed on modern society in the form of witty-banter. The Harvard Lampoon, the Simpsons, and of course -- Conan O'Brien. It's only fitting that the cure for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases would come from the motherland of such mental marvels.