Active Diabetes, Hormones & Metabolism Digestion, Kidneys & Other Organs

Bioengineering a cell-based cure for type 1 diabetes

Funder DiabetesUK Charity-funded
Recipient organisation Imperial College London
Funding £2.0M
Period Jul 2023 — Jul 2028

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A soft implant that houses insulin-producing cells and encourages blood vessels to grow around them could free people with type 1 diabetes from daily injections and constant glucose monitoring. Type 1 diabetes destroys the pancreatic beta cells that make insulin. Scientists can now grow replacement beta cells from stem cells, but these cells die without a steady oxygen supply. Current approaches require powerful immunosuppressive drugs to stop the body rejecting the implant, which carries serious long-term risks. This project aims to solve both problems at once. The team will engineer a hydrogel scaffold that protects the transplanted cells from immune attack while allowing tiny blood vessels to form around—but not inside—the cell clusters. Using 3D bioprinting, they will embed stem-cell derived beta cells alongside engineered microvessels into a single soft implant. If successful, the device would provide a self-oxygenating, immune-protected home for the cells, eliminating the need for immunosuppression. The ultimate goal is proof-of-concept data in animals that can support a first-in-human clinical trial. A working implant would transform type 1 diabetes from a condition requiring constant vigilance into one managed by a single procedure.

View original technical description
People with type 1 diabetes and their families dream of a cure – freedom from the immense mental load of diabetes self-management, the long-term risk of complications and the daily fear of hypoglycaemia. While there are existing initiatives providing stem-cell derived beta cells (SBCs) of sufficient “curative” mass and function, there is currently no credible pathway to deliver them sufficient oxygenation without systemic immunosuppression. The aim of this fellowship is to develop a soft implant that provides a vascularised matrix encompassing immune protected, stem cell derived beta cells, ready for translation into clinical trials. I will lead a UK team with our best scientists in the production of purified stem-cell derived beta cells and world-class expertise in advanced and functionalised hydrogels, leveraging state-of the art bioprinting technology. In Aim 1 we will use advanced materials science to functionalise PEG-based hydrogels that can immunoprotect and allow peri- (but not intra-) vascularisation of our SBC clusters. In Aim 2 we will extrude SBCs within co-axially designed hydrogels amongst engineered microvessels. In Aim 3 we will bioprint implants to deliver vascularised SBC cargos and deliver proof-of-concept animal data ready for translation of our curative product for T1D into human trials.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Salem (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Engineering prosurvival synthetic microenvironments by modulating extrinsic and intrinsic factors in stem cell-derived islet-cells
PEG-based hydrogels for iPSCs-derived regenerative therapies for diabetes
Bridging the gap between gene discovery and cell based human therapy in Type 1 diabetes
Immuno engineering biomaterials for stem-cell-derived beta cell transplantation in type 1 diabetes
Bridging the gap between gene discovery and cell-based human therapy in type 1 diabetes

Original classification

Fellowship

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