Wouldn’t it be nice to know your risk of developing a disease and if there was something you could do to reduce that risk?

Thanks to money raised by the JDRF One Walk, now there is for clinical diabetes.

Dr. Toni Moran has been researching diabetes for three decades at the University of Minnesota.

Moran is the principal investigator for a $3 million JDRF grant and wants both kids and adults to join her research by taking a free diabetes screening called TrialNet.

“We look for autoantibodies to find people who then we could do studies in to see if we can prevent progression. So, what’s new is that we are finding things,” Moran said.

Studies for the test led to the approval of Teplizumab — the first drug to delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes — by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Moran says that drug can delay it by at least three years.

The U of M is one of 16 TrialNet clinical centers, and screenings are also available online.

“You’ll get mailed a kit and, with that kit, you can either do a finger poke at home or you can take the kit to any laboratory and get blood drawn for these antibodies,” Moran said. “No charge.”

While the research can help participants determine their risk and ability to prevent the onset of diabetes, it can also help so many more people.

“Everything we know about diabetes now comes on the shoulders of people who participated in studies. And they will be helping somebody else, maybe a relative of theirs, and they’ll be moving the field forward,” Moran said.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS is the proud official media partner of the JDRF One Walk, which is scheduled to take place on May 18 at TCO Stadium at Viking Lakes in Eagan.