Diabetes and its complications are due to a variety of causes and present in many different ways. Using tissues such as eyes, kidneys, and arteries from people with diabetes who have either none or great deal of pathologies in these organs, we have identified potential causal and protective factors for diabetic eye, kidney and cardiovascular diseases. For example we found the elevation of a protein. VEGF, to be elevated in people with severe eye diseases and diabetes. This has led to the development of using anti-VEGF as a major approach to treat severe diabetic eye diseases.