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Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
HistoWiz is an innovative company dedicated to accelerating pathology-based research. HistoWiz provides fast, global access to digital whole-slide images, online collaboration tools, low-cost data management, and experimental pathology expertise. The web-based platform accelerates information exchange among medical scientists and research pathologists. HistoWiz`s mission is to fight cancer cooperatively instead of individually by connecting scientists and pathologists for online collaboration.
ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization serves and supports the scientific community with industry-standard products and innovative solutions. With the world’s largest and most diverse collection of human and animal cell lines, microorganisms, nucleic acids, molecular genomic tools, and biological products, ATCC is a trusted resource for the worldwide research community. Together, the people of ATCC share in its mission to acquire, authenticate, preserve, develop, and distribute biological materials and information for the advancement of scientific knowledge.
Previously Mr. Lerner has served as Vice President of Engineering and Technology for both Image Sensing Systems, Inc. and Telex Communications, Inc.
Beta Bionics is proud to be a Massachusetts public benefit corporation.