Dr. Shuibing Chen
Directed Differentiation towards Functional Human Islets for Replacement Therapy.
Diabetes affects 285 million people worldwide and consumes one out of eight health care cost dollars from U.S citizens. The biology of the Islets of Langerhans, which contain mainly endocrine cells and endothelial cells, is central to the development of diabetes and therefore, plays a key role in the development of therapeutic strategies. An efficient strategy to build functional human islets is important for both transplantation therapy and disease modeling of diabetes.
We have established a strategy to direct human pluripotent stem cell differentiation toward pancreatic progenitors and endocrine progenitors in an efficient way. We currently continue to combine directed differentiation and tissue engineering to build up functional human islets that can be used for replacement therapy for Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes patients.