[00:00:04.63] INTERVIEWER: Next up, Michelle Quizon speaking on "Treating Type 1 Diabetes: Delivery of Cells in Gels". [00:00:11.50] MICHELLE QUIZON: Some of you may know someone with type 1 diabetes. People in my life include Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, my favorite Jonas brother of boy-band fame, Nicholas Jonas, several of my graduate school friends, and most special to me, my sister. In type 1 diabetes, the body attacks an organ called the pancreas. Specifically, cells in the pancreas called beta cells. These beta cells produce insulin, a chemical that helps process sugar we eat into energy. [00:00:45.69] We use energy for everything. To breathe, CrossFit, and even to present a three-minute thesis. Because of this insulin is critical to our survival, without the natural ability to produce insulin, type 1 diabetics must rely on an insulin source produced outside of the body [AUDIO OUT]. However, even with the most advanced technologies, less than a third of type I diabetics can maintain long-term healthy blood sugar levels. [00:01:20.27] And when these blood sugar levels are out of control for too long, complications occur. Among others, we have blindness, heart disease, stroke, and sadly, even death. We must restore insulin production for type 1 diabetics. That is where my research comes in. Instead of relying on insulin sources produced outside of the body, how about we rely on the one insulin source produced inside the body. [00:01:49.18] In other words, let us deliver healthy and slim-producing beta cells to type I diabetics. I am engineering a bio-material platform that will house these cells as they are delivered to type I diabetics. So that in the short term, they can survive isolation from donor [INAUDIBLE], and in the long term, they can effectively integrate with the recipient's patient. [00:02:11.84] My research is all-encompassing, ranging from single-cell levels to diabetic rats. Even already, I have identified key design features to incorporate in my platform, and I have already established a large animal pig model. My research is challenging yet extremely fulfilling, and so to this audience, to Nicholas Jonas, and to my loved ones, we are ever one step closer to going from type I to type [INAUDIBLE]. Thank you.