Living with type 1 diabetes means planning every meal, counting carbohydrates and watching blood sugar levels around the clock. Even with modern tools, it remains a condition that shapes everyday life.
Now a research team in the United States is working on an approach that aims to rebuild what the body has lost instead of simply managing the damage.
Rebuilding what was destroyed
At the Medical University of South Carolina, scientist Leonardo Ferreira is leading a project funded with $1 million from Breakthrough T1D.
The goal is to restore insulin production by transplanting lab-grown beta cells, which are normally destroyed by the immune system in people with type 1 diabetes.
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Unlike traditional islet transplants, which rely on donor tissue, these new cells are produced from stem cells in the laboratory. That could solve the long-standing shortage of donor material.
Training the immune system
The second part of the strategy focuses on protection. Ferreira and collaborators Holger Russ at the University of Florida and Michael Brehm at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are engineering regulatory T cells to defend the transplanted beta cells.
These modified immune cells are designed to recognize and shield the new insulin-producing cells from attack.
If successful, the therapy could reduce or even remove the need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs, which often carry serious side effects.
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Early tests in preclinical models have shown protection lasting up to a month. Researchers are now studying how to extend that effect and move closer to human trials.
If the concept works, it may represent a shift from lifelong insulin dependence toward a durable, cell-based treatment for type 1 diabetes.
Sources: Science Daily and MUSC
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.