Ontario could arguably be called the birthplace of diabetes research, since the single most important research discovery to date-the isolation of insulin-was made in Toronto and London in 1921. Now the JDF and the Medical Research Council of Canada have established a multidisciplinary program headquartered in nearby London, Ontario, to find out what happens to the body's own ability to prosuce insulin.

Terry L. Delovitch, Ph.D., of The John P. Robarts Research Institute in London and Bhagirath Singh, Ph.D, of The University of Western Ontario, have formed a network of researchers at eleven Canadian institutes. They will focus on the early stage of diabetes called "insulitis," when immune white blood cells converge on the pancreas, where they attack and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells.

Drs. Delovitch and Singh want to unravel the immunologic process that activates the cells and causes their migration to the pancreas. Their goal is to develop a means to intervene at this early stage, before the beta cells are destroyed, stopping diabetes from developing.