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.
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.