This time, it’s personal. UF student devotes his life to researching type 1 diabetes
Twelve times a day for 14 years – starting at 3 a.m. – Cameron Crouse checked his blood sugar with finger pricks from a glucometer.
Diagnosed a month shy of his third birthday with type 1 diabetes in 2003, Crouse said administering 12 pricks a day became second nature. But for many people, especially those diagnosed later in life, managing diabetes often presents substantial physical, emotional and financial challenges.
“I consider myself fortunate because I was so young that I don’t have any memories of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes,” said Crouse, 24, a University of Florida Ph.D. student and biomedical engineering major in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.
Crouse is now rolling his experiences, knowledge and insight as a lifelong patient into his graduate research, hoping to find a diabetes treatment at the cellular level through tissue engineering. His goal is to reverse diabetes through transplanted cells that can produce insulin.
The Alabama native no longer pricks his finger each day, now using a glucose monitor with a continuous subcutaneous drip of insulin to track and correct changes in his blood sugar. These pieces of biomedical technology are able to “talk to each other,” Crouse said – an advancement that has made a huge difference for diabetics.
But Crouse contends that technology for diabetes treatment should not end there.
Diagnosis and advocacy
A year after Crouse was diagnosed, he and his family dove into diabetes research initiatives through the advocacy organization Breakthrough T1D. Crouse has been involved ever since, sharing his story often and seeking support from local and national politicians.
“I advocate, I fundraise and I do research to make their [diabetics’] lives easier. That makes it all worthwhile,” Crouse said. “I’m passionate about this cause because not only do I live with it and know people who live with it, I know how tough it is to live with this disease in a fortunate situation.”
In fact, Breakthrough T1D will honor Crouse in May for his advocacy work in Alabama, which includes a campaign called Promise to Remember Me that connects young diabetics with their state representatives to raise awareness for legislation and funding initiatives.
In 2013, Crouse joined the Breakthrough T1D’s biennial Children’s Congress, which sends two diabetic children – between the ages of 4 and 18 – from each state to Washington, D.C. to meet with legislators. Crouse also created the Put the Cap on Diabetes fundraiser at his elementary school in Alabama – an event that encourages students to pay to wear hats in class and raised $1,103 for Breakthrough T1D in its first year. The event has since grown to include three other Tuscaloosa schools.
“I owe it to my parents for being amazing people with amazing ideas and amazing resolve and willpower,” Crouse said.
His parents served on the Breakthrough T1D board and were honored in 2009 for spearheading large-scale fundraisers and advocacy throughout Alabama and Washington, D.C. Michelle and Hans Crouse immersed themselves in diabetes advocacy partly to remind their son that his voice can make a difference.
“He’s been all in and we’re so proud of him,” his mother said. “He probably wouldn’t be in a diabetes lab right now if he didn’t live with it.”
No stranger to research
Crouse completed his undergraduate work in tissue engineering at Clemson University and spent an undergraduate summer in Boston at the Joslin Diabetes Center, pursuing tissue research in diabetes.
For his graduate studies, he was inspired by UF professor and J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering Chair Cherie Stabler, Ph.D., who has been researching diabetes for 20 years. Like Crouse, Stabler is driven by translational research and wants her work to make a direct impact on the lives of people with diabetes.
“He is a brilliant researcher,” Stabler said about Crouse, who has been working in her lab. “He’s exceptionally hard-working. He’s very creative, very dexterous.”
Crouse wants to utilize biomaterials in islet cell transplantation to treat type 1 diabetes, Stabler said. Challenges with this approach include immune system rejection and oxygen support for transplanted cells, she added.
Such challenges only inspire Crouse to apply his background in tissue engineering – and experiences as a patient – to improve islet viability and function after transplant, Stabler said.
But Crouse is up to the challenge.
“Ph.D. is very difficult,” Crouse said. “There are days I want to pull my hair out, but it’s all working toward improving the field, improving the treatments available to people who live with type 1.”