New Center to Research Stem Cell Cures for Type 1 Diabetes

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Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
JDRF just announced a new partnership with Stanford and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to create the JDRF Northern California Center of Excellence. The goal of the Center is to research and develop cures for type 1 diabetes that use stem cells to generate insulin-producing cells. Stem cells are unique cells that have the potential to (i) renew themselves for long periods of time; and (ii) develop into many different types of cells in the human body – like the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas! While pancreatic transplantations are currently being studied, the shortage of available pancreas donors makes stem cells a promising alternative.

More specifically, this partnership aims to develop a stem cell-based cure for type 1 diabetes that does not require suppression of the immune system, which is traditionally achieved by taking medications for life. Sometimes, activity within the immune system must be suppressed so that it does not fight against a potentially helpful, but foreign group of cells (like a new kidney after a kidney transplant, or new stem cells).

https://diatribe.org/new-center-research-stem-cell-cures-type-1-diabetes
 
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