Daily injections for basal insulin therapy are far from ideal resulting in hypo/hyperglycemic episodes associated with fatal complications in type-1 diabetes patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a thermosensitive copolymer-based in situ depot forming delivery system to provide controlled release of insulin for extended duration following a single subcutaneous injection, closely mimicking physiological basal insulin requirement. Size and nature of the incorporated therapeutic were observed to affect the release profile of insulin. Modification with zinc and chitosan preserved thermal, conformational, and chemical stability of insulin during the entire duration of storage (up to 9 months at 4 °C) and release (up to 3 months at 37 °C). In vivo, daily administration of long-acting insulin, glargine, resulted in fluctuating blood glucose levels between 91 – 443 mg/dL in type 1 diabetic rats. However, single administration of oleic acid-grafted-chitosan-zinc-insulin complexes incorporated in copolymer formulation demonstrated slow diffusion of insulin complexes maintaining peak-free basal insulin level of 21 mU/L for 91 days. Sustained release of basal insulin also correlated with efficient glycemic control (blood glucose <120 mg/dL), prevention of diabetic ketoacidosis and absence of cataract development, unlike other treatment groups. The suggested controlled basal insulin delivery system has the potential to significantly improve patient compliance by improving glycemic control and eliminating life-threatening diabetes complications. Furthermore, oleic acid-grafted-chitosan (CO) nanomicelles were investigated as a non-viral vector to deliver plasmid DNA encoding short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against pro-inflammatory cytokines to adipose tissue macrophages and adipocytes for the treatment of insulin resistance. Nanomicelles modified using mannose (COM) and adipose homing peptide (AHP) (COA) showed significantly higher uptake and transfection efficiency in inflamed macrophages- adipocytes co culture owing to glucose transporter-1 and prohibitin receptor mediated internalization, respectively. Ligand modified nanomicelles loaded with shRNA against tumor necrosis factor alpha (COM-TNFα) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (COA-MCP1) demonstrated significant attenuation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in obese-diabetic mice for six weeks post treatment with single dose of optimized formulation. Overall, chitosan nanomicelles mediated targeted gene therapy can help attenuate inflammation, the chief underlying cause of insulin resistance, thereby helping reverse the progression of diabetes. / National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant R15GM114701 / ND EPSCoR seed award FAR0030636