Thanks to a team of researchers at Harvard University, led by Peng Yi, the world may be another step closer to a diabetic treatment that may require fewer needles. For those who don’t enjoy being punctured multiple times throughout the day, the study shows that giving the hormone, Betatrophin, to people with diabetes have the possibility of avoiding insulin shots.

This method, which has only been tested on mice, was developed almost on accident. The team added a specific compound in order to mimic the creation of diabetes. In other words, they simply wanted to see the effects of diabetes on an organism. Luckily, they saw much more. The compound, the research team gave the mice, initiated a “seventeenfold increase” in inactive “Beta” cells, located in the pancreas. These cells helped produce insulin in the body easily and painlessly. Because it’s still in testing, the mice only made enough beta cells to offset the drug’s effect. With more research, they’ll figure out how to make sure the Beta cells continue to increase and not stop at a certain point.

As of now, we don’t know if the compound will react positively, nonetheless react, in humans yet, but experts all agree that this is yet another step for a longer, easier, and happier life.