Grown in four days: the insulin-making cells that diabetes destroys

For people with type 1 diabetes, the problem starts with one missing cell type — the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin, which the body mistakenly attacks and loses. A Chicago team, Syntax Bio, told a stem-cell conference in Kyoto this week that its Cellgorithm system coaxed human stem cells toward becoming beta cells in just four days, by switching the cells' own genes on in a carefully timed sequence — with no cutting of DNA. After testing more than 170 combinations, the team has finished the first screening stage of its lead programme, backed by the charity Breakthrough T1D, and is now working on scaling the process up with Mayo Clinic. It is early, lab-stage work, not a treatment yet — but a faster, more reliable way to grow these cells tackles one of the main bottlenecks on the road to cell therapies for diabetes.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation