Expanding pancreatic progenitor cells for treatment of type 1 diabetes

Summary The goal of this project will be to identify factors that can expand human PSC-derived pancreatic progenitor pools, thus allowing for efficient generation of large numbers of human PSC-derived endocrine cells for subsequent use in transplantation therapies.

Project Details

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a promising alternative to cadaver-derived islets, potentially providing an unlimited supply of insulin-producing beta cells for transplantation therapies to treat type 1 diabetes. Numerous protocols that promote the differentiation of PSCs towards a beta cell fate have been published and generally aim to recapitulate signalling processes that occur during embryogenesis.  However, there is one noticeable discord between in vivo pancreatic development and in vitro pancreatic differentiation - the absence of a clearly defined progenitor expansion stage in in vitro differentiations.

In the embryo, prior to pancreatic specification, the gut tube undergoes significant expansion as the embryonic axis extends. Following this, the pancreatic progenitor compartment rapidly proliferates, undergoing branching morphogenesis, prior to endocrine differentiation, delamination and islet formation. The goal of this project will be to identify factors that can expand human PSC-derived pancreatic progenitor pools, thus allowing for efficient generation of large numbers of human PSC-derived endocrine cells for subsequent use in transplantation therapies.

This project will involve cell culture, directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells and flow cytometry