
Treating Type 1 Diabetes
In Type 1 diabetes, the body tends to attack its own pancreatic cells, disrupting its capability to produce insulin against the glucose. A researcher at MIT in 2016 collaborated with a Children’s hospital in Boston and designed a new material that enabled them to encapsulate and transplant healthy pancreatic islet cells into diabetic mice without impacting the immune response.
Developed using seaweed, the substance is gentle enough to protect the body from reacting to it and porous to enable the islet cells to be positioned in the mice’s abdomen where they restore the pancreatic abilities. This experiment has a strong potential to provide Type1 diabetes people with a new and healthy pancreas that is shielded from the immune system. This would ensure that their blood sugar level stays in check without having to rely on medications.