Our Research
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease leading to the destruction of beta cells in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. As the beta cells are the source of insulin, a hormone that lowers glucose, their destruction leads to elevated blood glucose levels which can cause severe health effects. In the majority of cases the cause of immune attack on beta cells is remains unknown. While insulin therapy has saved millions of lives worldwide, it is not a cure as it requires daily and lifelong injections that are burdensome and accurately regulate blood glucose. Transplantation of donor islets can restore beta cell mass and lead to long-term control glucose levels, but this approach is limited by the scarcity of donor organs.
We employ human pluripotent stem cells to develop beta cells in a dish. This platform allows the study of beta cell development, identifying potential causes of T1D, and generation of a renewable cell source for transplantation to treat T1D, which are the three main cohorts of our research.
Selected Publications:
Usama, M., Deng, Y., Chen, Y., Milland, T., Malleshaiah, M., Aghazadeh, Y. Navigating challenges in human pluripotent stem cell-derived islet therapy for type 1 diabetes. Front Immunol 2025; 16:1625439, doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1625439, PMID: 40831568.
Aplin, A.C.,Aghazadeh, Y., Mohn, O.G., Hull-Meichle, R.L. Role of the pancreatic microvasculature in health and disease. J Histochem Cytochem 2024; 2(11-12):711-728, doi: 10.1369/00221554241299862, PMID: 39601198.
Aghazadeh, Y., Sarangi, F., Poon, F., Nkennor, B., Nunes, S.S., Nostro, M.C. GP2-enriched pancreatic progenitors generate functional beta cells in vivo and eliminate the risk of teratoma formation. Stem Cell Reports 2022;17(4):964-978, doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.03.004, PMID: 35364010.
Aghazadeh, Y., Poon, F., Sarangi, F., Wong, F.T.M., Khan, S.T., Sun, X., Hatkar, R., Cox, B.J., Nunes, S.S., Nostro, M.C. Microvessels support engraftment and functionality of human islets and hESC-derived pancreatic progenitors in diabetes models. Cell Stem Cell 2021; 28(11): 1936-1949.e8, doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.08.001, PMID: 34480863.
Aghazadeh Y., Khan, S.T., Nkennor, B., Nunes, S.S. Cell-based therapies for vascular regeneration: past, present, and future. Pharmacol Ther 2021; 107976, doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2021.107976, PMID: 34480961.
To read more visit : Google Scholar/ Yasaman Aghazadeh