Disease Focus: Diabetes
Generation of a functional thymus to induce immune tolerance to stem cell derivatives
Stem cell research offers the promise of replacing missing or damaged tissues in the treatment of disease. Stem-cell-derived transplants still face problems with rejection as in traditional organ transplants. Several drugs can prevent rejection but also suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections and cancer. To avoid rejection without using drugs requires re-educating […]
Preclinical and clinical testing of a stem cell-based combination product for insulin-dependent diabetes
Diabetes exacts a tremendous toll on patients, their families, and society. Autoimmune Type 1 diabetes, often called juvenile-onset diabetes, is caused by a person’s own immune system mistakenly destroying their insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, known as beta cells. When those beta cells are lost, the ability to produce insulin in response to consumed carbohydrates […]
Deciphering transcriptional control of pancreatic beta-cell maturation in vitro
The loss of pancreatic beta-cells in type 1 diabetes results in absence of insulin secreted by the pancreas, and consequently elevated blood sugar which leads to various long-term complications. Diabetic patients would benefit tremendously from availability of transplantable replacement beta-cells. Much of current research focuses on producing beta-cells from stem cells. Despite some progress, it […]
Biological relevance of microRNAs in hESC differentiation to endocrine pancreas
There remains an urgent and critical need for a cell-based cure of diabetes, one of the most costly diseases in California. Islet transplantation with persistent immune suppression has shown promise in curing type 1 diabetes (TID). However, one major obstacle towards large scale implementation of this approach is the shortage of engraftable islets. Human ES […]
Methods for detection and elimination of residual human embryonic stem cells in a differentiated cell product
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), and other related pluripotent stem cells, have great potential as starting material for the manufacture of curative cell therapies. This is primarily for two reasons. First, by manipulating cues in their cell culture conditions, these cells can be directed to become essentially any desired human cell type (a property known […]
Developing induced pluripotent stem cells into human therapeutics and disease models
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can undergo unlimited self-renewal and differentiate into all the cell types in the human body, and thus hold great promise for cell replacement therapy. However, one major problem for hESC-based therapy is that the cells derived from hESCs will be rejected by the recipient and can only be tolerated under […]
Stem cell tolerance through the use of engineered antigen-specific regulatory T cells
Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) occurs as a consequence of uncontrolled immune activation, culminating in the destruction of insulin-producing beta-cells. Efforts to prevent or reverse diabetes have been limited by the lack of safe and effective immunotherapies coupled with the inability to restore insulin producing beta-cells. We believe proper immune control to self-tissues to be a […]
Development of the Theracyte Cellular Encapsulation System for Delivery of human ES Cell-derived Pancreatic Islets and Progenitors.
There are several challenges to the successful implementation of a cellular therapy for insulin dependent diabetes derived from Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs). Among these are the development of functional insulin-producing cells, a clinical delivery method that eliminates the need for chronic immunosuppression, and assurance that hESC-derived tumors do not develop in the patient. We […]
Endodermal differentiation of human ES cells
The goals of this proposal are to investigate endodermal differentiation and proliferation in human ES cell cultures. Endodermal cells give rise to the epithelial lining of the respiratory and digestive tract as well as to the liver and pancreas. The future treatment of diseases such as type I diabetes using stem cell therapy relies on […]
Cell Therapy for Diabetes
Diabetes exacts a tremendous toll on patients, their families, and society in general. Autoimmune Type 1 diabetes, often called juvenile-onset diabetes, is caused by a person’s own immune system mistakenly destroying their insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, known as beta cells. When those beta cells are lost, the ability to produce insulin in response to […]