(NECN) - Diabetes is a deadly disease one of every eight American adults fights. With poor diet and obesity on the rise, experts fear it could affect one in three adults by 2050.

Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston leads the nation, and the world, in preventing and treating the disease, as well as the blindness, kidney failure and amputations it causes.

CEO John Brooks joins Peter Howe on CEO Corner to explain how he leads the people at Joslin in the fight against diabetes.

"I really am thrilled with the opportunity to really lead a tremendous group of people at Joslin," said Brooks. "I really do think we're going to cure diabetes."

Brooks also explains that to continue to help people, Joslin must be run well as a business.

"We still have to run an organization like Joslin as a business. We're not for profit, we're independent, we control our own destiny, but at the end of the day, non-profits need profits," he said. "We have to be able to have the economics to do the great work that we do."

See the attached video for the complete segment.