A Novel Approach To Type 1 Diabetes Treatment

Life scientists are working hard to identify new breakthroughs that could address and possibly reverse T1D's underlying mechanisms. Recently, one lab may have cracked the code on a curative gene therapy, thanks to an incidental discovery that uses a viral vector platform to reprogram one cell type into another.

The Gittes Lab for Diabetes and Pancreatitis Research at the Univertisty of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is well on its way to acheiving the first-in-human trials using this innovative method. The efficient scale-up technology of the Corning® Ascent™ Fixed Bed Bioreactor (FBR) platform is helping them get there.

Continue reading to learn more about this method that explores the production of new insulin-producing beta cells, which are destroyed by the immune system in patients with diabetes, contributing to glucose imbalance. The labs finding exposed the potential of adeno-associated virus vectors (AAV) as "packaging cells", a tool for inserting genetic material into neighboring alpha cells, trans-differentiating them into beta cells so the cells would not just get destroyed all over again.