Developing a collaborative human stem-cell islet pipeline, without the need for rodent-based maturation, in Exeter

Summary

We will establish and characterise the urgently required production of human stem-cell (SC)-islets here in Exeter. Furthermore, we will test a new hypothesis if islet helper cells could help protect and boost insulin production from the SC-islets.

How are we doing it?

We will use human stem cells and subsequently differentiate them into SC-islets using a validated seven-stage model from the University of Helsinki. We will then test whether a co-culture environment of SC-islets and hMSCs can further improve the function of these SC-islets. This is a collaborative project involving expert islet researchers at the University of Exeter.

What happens next?

We’ll be getting into the laboratory to carry on with our experiments. We have already got promising data to suggest we can get to the latter stages of pancreatic islet differentiation. If our hypothesis is correct, that we can further mature SC-islets using a human-focused model, we will apply for further and larger grants to continue this validation work.

Funding

NIHR Exeter BRC.

People Involved

Dr. Chloe Rackham, Dr. Nick Owens, Dr. Mark Russell.

Other collaborators: Dr. Rebecca Dewhurst-Trigg.