New Funding and Research Advance René Maehr’s Work Toward Stem Cell Therapies for Type 1 Diabetes
Date Posted: Monday, July 06, 2026
One of the biggest challenges in developing stem cell-derived islet transplantation therapies for people with type 1 diabetes is helping transplanted cells withstand autoimmune attack. Two newly funded projects from the laboratory of René Maehr, PhD, an Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School and Co-Director of the Pappas Stem Cell Differentiation Core, are developing strategies to make stem cell-derived islets more resistant to the inflammatory environment that destroys insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes.
The work supports a major goal of the Breakthrough T1D Barbara Dewey Cammett Center of Excellence in New England, where Dr. Maehr is an investigator: developing stem cell-derived islet therapies that can function without lifelong immunosuppression.
A newly awarded National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant will identify and precisely engineer genetic elements that control how stem cell-derived islets respond to inflammation. The goal is to help the transplanted cells better withstand immune attack, supporting the development of safer and more durable cell therapies for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Create More Resilient Cells
A second project, funded by Breakthrough T1D, combines artificial intelligence with precision genome editing to identify genetic changes that could make stem cell-derived islets more resistant to inflammation while preserving their normal function.
Scientists will use AI to predict the most promising genetic designs, and the Maehr lab will engineer those changes into human stem cells before developing them into islets. The resulting cells will be tested to determine whether they can better withstand inflammatory signals while continuing to function normally.
New Insights into Gene Regulation
Dr. Maehr also co-authored a recent publication describing a computational method called CoPhasing that provides a clearer picture of how DNA is organized inside the cell nucleus.
“Understanding how the genome is organized in three dimensions provides another layer of information beyond DNA sequence alone,” said Dr. Maehr. “These tools help us better understand how genes are regulated, which ultimately informs how we modify cells with predictable and therapeutic functions.”
Advancing Regenerative Medicine
Together, the new publication and research awards highlight the Maehr laboratory’s strategy of combining stem cell biology and genome engineering to advance stem cell-derived islet transplantation as a safe curative therapy for type 1 diabetes.