Starting with the January 2012 issue, a new team takes the reins of Diabetes. A question that many people have asked is whether the new leadership will change Diabetes. My answer would be, of course, that change is necessary to respond to new challenges arising from the continual transformation of technology and science. Such changes have been continuously transforming Diabetes since its inception in 1952 under the editorship of Dr. Frank N. Allan (of Boston, Massachusetts) and the 11 editors that have succeeded him. This evolution will continue under our stewardship, though the core principles and mission of the journal will remain unchanged.

The overriding mission of Diabetes is to publish the most original and important scientific works of relevance to diabetes and related disorders. The majority of the early editions of Diabetes published articles relevant to clinical problems. Gradually the journal began expanding toward more laboratory-based mechanistic studies. Diabetes will continue to publish both human and animal studies that advance our understanding about the pathophysiology of diabetes and its complications. Our ultimate goal—to prevent and cure diabetes—lies ahead. Continuing toward this goal, our aim is to serve the immediate need of reporting research that contributes to improving the quality of the lives of people suffering from diabetes. Most of the mechanistic experiments published in Diabetes are performed in animals or in vitro models. These are the cornerstones of medical discovery. Before applications in humans can occur, basic experimentation lights the way, as exemplified by Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best, who performed their landmark experiments in dogs before applying their findings to treat type 1 diabetic individuals with insulin. Although there are many obvious limitations in performing human studies, we also believe that novel observations in humans are critically important to stimulating basic science research in animals …