Researchers from Harvard and MIT have succeeded in transplanting insulin-producing cells into mice with the equivalent of type 1 diabetes. In 2014, the same research team mass produced the glucose-responsive, insulin-producing beta cells from human embryonic (SC-β) stem cells. The treated mice appeared to by disease-free, without producing any adverse immune responses, for as long as 6 months after receiving the transplanted cells. If the therapy were to work similarly in humans, this would translate into several years of injection-free diabetes control.

According to a co-author of the study, Daniel Anderson, this development “has the potential to provide diabetics with a new pancreas that is protected from the immune system, which would allow them to control their blood sugar without taking drugs.” (via Gizmodo)

Click here to read the article published in the journal Nature.