There are plenty of reasons not to tell you about an experimental new treatment for Type 1 diabetes, a particularly devastating form of diabetes in which the body's immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Experimental therapies often fail, and even when the treatments work, widespread availability is usually years away. But a study in last week's New England Journal of Medicine offers such intriguing insights into the future of treatment--not just for Type 1 diabetes but also for a number of autoimmune disorders--that it's hard to resist. Just keep in mind that these are preliminary results.
First a...