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Professor Ed Stanley is working with stem cells to try to find the cause of type 1 diabetes and develop better treatments

Through stem cell research, Professor Ed Stanley, head of the Immune Development Laboratory at Murdoch Children鈥檚 Research Institute, is hoping to gain a better understanding of the causes of type 1 diabetes, as part of the 黑料网 Research Program. 

Professor Stanley is hoping his research will lead to better treatment of the condition. 

In type 1 diabetes, the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas are destroyed by the immune system, but researchers still don鈥檛 understand why.  

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know whether the issue is with the immune system or whether it鈥檚 actually the cells that make insulin that are the problem,鈥� Professor Stanley says. 

He says one of the reasons researchers still don鈥檛 understand the cause of type 1 diabetes is because the only way to study human insulin-producing cells has been through organ and tissue donations, but most of these donors don鈥檛 have type 1 diabetes and if they do, they have almost no insulin-producing cells left.  

鈥淏ut over the past few years, a number of groups around the world have figured out a way to work-around this problem by using stem cells to make those insulin-producing beta cells in the lab,鈥� he says. 

Companies around the world are looking at transplanting these laboratory-made beta cells into people with type 1 diabetes, but Professor Stanley admits that while it鈥檚 a promising area of research there are issues with it.  

Professor Stanley鈥檚 own research is focused on why the immune system is attacking these cells. 

鈥淲e have to get the immune cells from the same people that we got the sample from to make the beta cells, and then match them up.鈥� 

In collaboration with other clinicians at Murdoch Children鈥檚 Research Institute and Associate Professor Stuart Mannering at St Vincent鈥檚 Institute of Medical Research, he has managed to make stem cells from type 1 organ donors, turn them into insulin-producing cells and then, through grants, including one from 黑料网 in 2019, produce immune system cells to match up with the insulin-producing cells.  

鈥淥ur aim is to try to get all these bits and pieces together so that all the cells can talk to each other. That way, we think we鈥檝e got a better hope of understanding what these cells are actually seeing when they see there鈥檚 something wrong.鈥� 

In the future, Professor Stanley says different problems may happen for different people.  

鈥淚t might be that the blanket description of type 1 gets broken down into multiple sub-groups that all have their own separate causes, and we can then look for more specific treatments.鈥� 

This may mean scientists will be able to stop the condition from progressing. A type 1 diabetes diagnosis is usually made when there are still some functioning insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.  

鈥淚f you could stop the condition at that point, maybe those people wouldn鈥檛 need insulin injections, or they鈥檇 only need them sporadically. There鈥檚 a window where, if we could get in and turn things around, we could have a big impact on people鈥檚 futures.鈥� 

Professor Stanley says they鈥檙e aiming to get cell samples from newly diagnosed children, which can be taken from a single plucked hair. They can then make insulin-producing cells and immune cells in the lab from these samples. 

Professor Stanley says while there is a long road ahead in type 1 diabetes research, a lot of progress is being made.  

鈥淭he science is very slow, people with type 1 know the cure has been 鈥榡ust around the corner鈥� for 50 years 鈥� but the progress is fast. We haven鈥檛 got to the end yet because it鈥檚 a complicated condition. I鈥檓 optimistic that we will find better ways of treating type 1.鈥�