Mayo Clinic, Minn.

— -- Diabetes is a problem when a person's body doesn't make enough insulin for their body's needs. The operative word is 'enough.' And you can not have enough insulin because your insulin secreting cells, so-called beta cells, don't work right. Or because other things make you need a lot more insulin, such as being pregnant or being overweight.

So the research in Mayo has been focusing on: how does insulin work, which tissues does it work, how do we interact people's lifestyle in such a way that that would help them restore this balance? What is it that causes people to be overweight? Why do people store fat in different places?

And overall, the whole thing together is, well, what do we do in order to bring these blood sugars -- and the blood pressure and blood lipids because that's all part of it -- back to normal again? So it's a whole group of people working together, trying to understand those questions.

Click here for more information on diabetes treatment and research at the Mayo Clinic