New Generation Cell Therapy:
Bioartificial Pancreas to Cure Type 1 Diabetes

Join us for the final project event

The final project event – VANGUARD Symposium – will take place on Monday, June 30th, 2025, in London, UK, as part of the ESOT Congress 2025. We are thankful to our ESOT partners for making it possible.

Learn more here.

VANGUARD, a Horizon 2020 project, successfully ended on 30 June 2025

  • Consortium

    9 partners from 5 countries

  • Budget

    € 6.8 million

  • Duration

    01.01.2020 – 30.06.2025

The challenge

Forty million individuals worldwide suffer from type 1 diabetes. This disease is managed by insulin therapy in a vast majority of patients because of the limited accessibility of beta cell replacement therapies.

There is an urgent need for the development of a beta cell replacement therapy that will be available to larger numbers of type 1 diabetic patients.

VANGUARD solution​

The goal of the VANGUARD project was to generate a vascularized and immune-protected bioartificial pancreas that can be transplanted into non-immuno-suppressed patients by combining advanced tissue engineering strategies.

Results of the project contribute to the development of an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP), which can significantly improve the treatment of type 1 diabetes.