Photo by Jane Korsak on Unsplash (illustrative)
In August 2025, a team led by Per-Ola Carlsson at Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that gene-edited donor islet cells had survived and produced insulin in a man with type 1 diabetes, without any immune-suppressing drugs. The work was done with Oslo University Hospital and the US company Sana Biotechnology.
Key facts
The patient was a 42-year-old man who had lived with type 1 diabetes for 37 years.
The donor cells were edited with CRISPR to remove HLA immune markers and to boost CD47, a signal that tells immune cells not to attack, then injected into a forearm muscle.
After 12 weeks, his blood showed insulin production from the cells and no immune attack against them.
A follow-up report in July 2026 said the cells were still safe and working after 14 months.
Why it matters
Transplanted islet cells can make insulin, but patients normally need drugs that suppress the immune system to stop rejection. If cells can be hidden from the immune system, people with type 1 diabetes might one day receive insulin-producing cells without that trade-off.
Worth noting
This is one patient who received only about 7% of a full dose, so he still needed insulin injections; the study was designed to test safety and survival, not to free him from insulin. Larger trials are needed.