Tiny “bubbles” may deliver genes to help fight diabetes, researchers say.

Researchers directed an ultrasonic pulse at the pancreas of the rats to burst the tiny bubbles, releasing the genetic contents. When they later dissected the rats and examined their organs, they found there were higher levels of fluorescence in pancreatic tissue than in other tissues.

In the second part of the experiment, the bubbles contained plasmids with the human gene for insulin. The ultrasonic pulse was similarly directed towards each rat’s pancreas, and researchers later found significantly elevated levels of human insulin in the rodents.