New Study on a More Effective Cell Therapy for Diabetes

The team from the Laboratory of Molecular Pathogenetics, led by Gabriela Pavlínková from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the BIOCEV center, played a significant role in international research, the results of which were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The study provides new insights that contribute to the development of cell therapy for diabetes.

Diabetes is one of the most widespread chronic diseases and, in many patients, is associated with a deficiency or damage to the beta cells of the pancreas, which produce insulin. One of the main directions of current research in modern medicine is cell replacement, i.e., the preparation of healthy and functional cells in the laboratory and their subsequent transplantation into patients.

For this purpose, scientists use pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to transform into any type of tissue. However, a key challenge remains: how to precisely direct these cells so that they become fully functional insulin-producing cells while minimizing the formation of unwanted (“off-target”) cells.

The research team compared various methods for differentiating these cells and identified combinations of signals that significantly increase the proportion of desired beta cells while limiting the formation of unwanted cells. The study also revealed the critical role of the ISL1 gene, whose dysfunction can lead to the formation of another undesirable cell type that arises during this process. The researchers confirmed this mechanism in both human cells and animal models, and it represents an important step toward better quality control of cells prepared for therapeutic use.

This achievement is the result of close collaboration between Czech scientists and their Canadian colleagues at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute in Toronto. The study’s findings contribute to the development of personalized medicine and bring us closer to the possibility of preparing “tailored cells” for targeted diabetes treatment.

Publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-70666-y