Minseok Lee
Cornell University, NY·Biomedical Engineering
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) happens when the immune system destroys the pancreatic cells that make insulin. Transplanting replacement insulin-producing cells could restore natural blood-sugar control.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
type 1 diabetes
islet transplantation
cell replacement therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Test whether holding PD-L1/CTLA-4Ig-expressing engineered mesenchymal stromal cells (immune-calming 'nurse' cells) next to islets in an electrospun device boosts local immune tolerance in mice.
- Determine whether the cell-retaining device, which lets blood vessels grow in, prolongs the function of transplanted donor (allogeneic) islets placed under the skin without systemic immunosuppression.
- Develop a scalable, vascularized, immune-modulating islet delivery device as a step toward an immunosuppression-free cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes.
More about the research
These cells can be islets from donors or cells grown from stem cells. The problem is keeping the transplanted cells alive and working without lifelong drugs that suppress the immune system. Sealing the cells inside a protective capsule blocks immune attack. But it also keeps out blood vessels, so over time the cells receive too little oxygen and nutrients and stop working well. This project takes an 'open' approach. It aims to build an implant under the skin that lets blood vessels grow in while keeping the local immune system calm.
Why it matters
Type 1 diabetes affects more than 1 million people in the US, who rely on insulin injections or pumps that are tedious, painful and imperfect. An implant placed under the skin that protects donor or stem cell-derived islets without lifelong immunosuppressive drugs could lead to a cell replacement therapy that patients can actually use.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hirotake Komatsu
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Build human islet organoids about 5 mm thick by layering parylene microcapillary mesh that carries oxygen from flowing culture medium, testing whether a dynamic culture system keeps the organoid core alive past the usual diffusion limit.
Rebecca Craig-Schapiro
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Assess how selective, conditional loss of NKX2-3, a transcription factor that marks islet-specific endothelial cells, in pancreatic blood vessel cells affects islet function.
Taylor Triolo
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Analyze whether baseline markers of beta cell function and stress predict C-peptide preservation during the partial remission, or "honeymoon," period in patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
The school
Cornell University: 37 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 537 research doctorates a year.
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