Today Barack Obama appeared on Chris Matthews' "Hardball College Tour" at Westchester University. While the interview overall was interesting, humorous, and insightful, one particular question before the second commerical break caught my attention:

"As a type 1 diabetic, I was just wondering what you are going to do to gain further support for stem cell research."

Obama responded that Congress was ready and willing to provide more money for stem cell research; that both the House and the Senate had already passed such a bill, with the only obstacle preventing its passage was President Bush's veto pen. He continued, "We just need one more vote, and that’s the vote of the president.  And since I will be the president, we will sign stem cell research."

Sitting in my living room I cheered along with the thunderous applause from the audience. I am happy to see that a major Presidential contender not only acknowledges that seeking a cure for Diabetes is an important and worthy cause, but promises to fund such research early on in his Presidency.

The whole show (about an hour) is available on Youtube. Here is the section that includes the Type-1 girl asking Obama about stem cell research, about a minute from the end:
Link to Video

A new human trial is beginning at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after an animal trial resulted with diabetic mice being cured after being injected with BCG, a common tuberculosis medicine.

"The vaccine destroyed abnormal white blood cells obstructing the production of insulin, which is needed to prevent diabetes, she said. The first step in the human study is to determine whether the same strategy using BCG vaccination can be used to modify the abnormal autoimmune cells present in type 1 diabetes."

If effective in humans, they are hoping to have a cure available in 4 years. While I'm always skeptical of cures, I am cautiously optimistic with this one since it uses an established medicine and was effective in mice. If four years from now I'm cured, I'll throw a huge party. You'll all be invited :-).

Read more here: Link