Adding engineered human blood vessel-forming cells to islet transplants boosted the survival of the insulin-producing cells and reversed diabetes in a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The distinct population of endothelial cells that line blood vessels in the insulin-producing “islets” of the human pancreas have been notoriously difficult to study, but Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have now succeeded in comprehensively detailing the unique characteristics of these cells.

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have received a two-year $500,000 grant from JDRF to evaluate an innovative approach to islet cell transplantation, an experimental treatment for difficult-to-control type 1 diabetes. The research will be conducted in mouse models of this disease.

A team led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists has pioneered a method for manufacturing functioning human blood vessels and demonstrated that they can carry blood in lab-grown model organs and tumors.