Greenstone Biosciences has received a Breakthrough T1D Industry Discovery and Development Partnership grant to develop a patient-derived islet cell platform aimed at improving understanding of insulin-producing beta cells in people with type 1 diabetes.
The project will use induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, generated from a diverse group of patients with type 1 diabetes to create three-dimensional pancreatic islet organoids.
These laboratory-grown structures will contain insulin-producing beta cells and allow researchers to investigate how patient-derived cells respond to inflammation, metabolic stress and potential protective therapies.
Type 1 diabetes results from an autoimmune attack on insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, but the disease can vary substantially between individuals, including patients with similar autoantibody profiles.
Greenstone’s platform is intended to help researchers examine that biological variability using human-derived models rather than relying primarily on animal systems or scarce pancreatic tissue.
More than 9.5 million people worldwide currently live with type 1 diabetes, with that number expected to reach approximately 14.7 million by 2040.
The project will incorporate multiple layers of biological information through a multi-omics approach.
Greenstone plans to use technologies including single-cell RNA sequencing, chromatin accessibility mapping, proteomics and metabolomics to study differences in beta-cell vulnerability.
The company hopes these analyses will identify biological pathways that make certain beta cells more susceptible to disease-related stress and potentially uncover therapeutic targets that existing models cannot resolve.
All iPSC lines generated through the project will be banked as a renewable research resource, while summary-level data will be made publicly available.
Greenstone Biosciences combines AI-based drug discovery with clinical genomics, iPSC technology and organoid models.
The company said it maintains the world’s largest human iPSC biobank, with more than 2,500 patient lines representing a range of diseases, ancestries and genetic backgrounds.
Greenstone also uses New Approach Methods, or NAMs, intended to support more human-centered approaches to therapeutic research and development.
Breakthrough T1D, formerly known as JDRF, focuses on research, advocacy and education related to type 1 diabetes.
The collaboration is intended to create a scalable human biological platform that researchers could use to better understand disease mechanisms and evaluate potential approaches for protecting insulin-producing cells.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are honored to partner with Breakthrough T1D. This grant enables us to build a scalable, multi-omics discovery engine that connects patient biology to therapeutic innovation.”
Dr. Angelos Oikonomopoulos, Principal Investigator At Greenstone Biosciences
“Human pancreatic tissue is scarce, and animal models don’t fully capture T1D’s autoimmune process. This islet model could become a key resource for T1D researchers.”
Alex Bashore, Scientist At Breakthrough T1D
“Greenstone Bio has built one of the most advanced human cell platforms in the field. Their ability to generate high-quality iPSC lines at scale will accelerate discovery for people living with T1D.”
Dr. Joseph Wu, Director Of The Stanford Cardiovascular Institute And Co-Founder Of Greenstone Biosciences
