A peek inside some leading research labs shows how scientists-turned-detectives are painstakingly decoding what causes autoimmune diseases and how to stop the immune system from attacking you instead of protecting you.

It’s a huge challenge. By the National Institutes of Health’s newest count there are about 140 autoimmune diseases affecting tens of millions of people.

Unraveling them requires patience, persistence — and sophisticated technology to even see the suspects. Researchers use laser-powered machinery and brightly colored fluorescent dyes to tell rogue cells from normal ones.

Take Type 1 diabetes, caused when cells in the pancreas that produce insulin are gradually killed off by rogue T cells. In a biomedical engineering lab at Johns Hopkins University, researchers examine mous

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