A research programme has been initiated which is aimed at finding a new treatment for type I diabetes. The main goal of this research is to generate cells that will effectively provide an artificial beta cell replacement: (beta cells are the cells in the pancreas which manufacture insulin, and which are destroyed by the immune system in type I diabetes).

Our strategies are to:

(1) take non-beta cells which are likely to be safe for transplantation; insert a genetic construct resulting in human insulin production by these cells; and finally to further engineer the cells so that they secrete insulin in response to physiological changes in blood glucose;

(2) replace the constitutive insulin gene with human insulin gene in murine cells, using gene knock-out/knock-in technologies;

(3) develop beta cells by regulated differentiation of stem/precusor cell types. We are also working on encapsulation methods for the cells, to protect them from immune attack when they are transplanted.