Project summary
A potential transformative treatment for type 1 diabetes is to replace insulin-making beta cells that have been destroyed with new ones, so that people can make their own insulin again. Professor Shanta Persaud is testing a new and improved method to grow new beta cells in the lab from stem cells. Having an unlimited supply of lab-made beta cells would bring us closer to a cure for type 1 diabetes, and this project could see us get there sooner.
Background to research
Type 1 diabetes happens when the body attacks its beta cells in the pancreas, and people can no longer make the insulin they need to live.
Transplants of beta cells taken from donor pancreas already exist and can help people with type 1 produce their own insulin again for a short time. But there are a limited number of donor cells available.
In the quest to create more beta cells and cure type 1 diabetes, scientists have turned to stem cells. Stem cells have the potential to become a wide range of different human cells, and scientists can encourage them to turn into beta cells in the lab.
However, at the moment lab-made beta cells don’t work well enough. This is partly because the methods scientists use to produce them are rooted in what they know from studying mouse stem cells. And human and mouse beta cells develop differently.
Professor Shanta Persaud and her team are experts in human beta cell development. They aim to use their knowledge to improve the process of making beta cells from stem cells.
Research aims
The team will turn human stem cells into beta cells using a new method based on their understanding of how beta cells develop in babies as they grow in the womb.
They’ll then compare the cells they’ve made with real human beta cells from donors to see how similar they are. Finally, they’ll transplant the beta cells they’ve made in the lab or beta cells taken from donors into mice with diabetes. They’ll check if their lab-made cells are better at managing blood sugar levels.
Potential benefit to people with diabetes
At the moment, insulin is the only treatment for people with type 1 diabetes. But it’s difficult to use and doesn’t come close to giving the precise blood sugar control that beta cells do.
If successful, this study would give scientists a method to create better-performing beta cells from stem cells. This could speed up progress towards clinical trials of beta cell transplants in people with type 1, and move us closer to a cure. Beta cell transplants would be game-changing and could give people a future without the relentlessness of managing type 1 diabetes and the risk of serious complications.
