First It Was Mini-Livers; Now Science Can Give You a Bonus Pancreas as Well?

It was only a few weeks ago that I wrote about a promising scientific breakthrough for those with liver disease, or in potential need of liver transplants, which came in the form of injectable “satellite livers” or “mini-livers” made from real hepatocyte cells, of the same sort found in a normal human liver. Once in the body, and held together by the novel use of tiny hydrogel microspheres that can be injected like a liquid but solidify within the body, these hepatocyte cells would go on to produce the various enzymes and proteins necessary to carry out the liver’s more than 500 known functions, potentially making it so those with disease don’t ultimately need a transplant after all. And wouldn’t you know it: A few weeks pass and another new study comes along, echoing some of the same ideas–only this time, it’s bonus pancreatic cells that you’d be receiving, with the potential to reduce the reliance of diabetics upon insulin.

That study comes from MIT’s ungainly titled Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and was published this week in the medical journal Device. It would involve the implantation of a small device that encapsulates insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells, protecting the cells from immune rejection response, while also providing oxygen for them via an on-board oxygen generator. The whole is wirelessly powered by an external antenna on the skin, which feeds power to the tiny device.

Incredible, right?

Researchers at MIT hope that the device, which has been shown to keep the islet cells alive for at least three months in mice, could eventually offer a way to help people with type 1 diabetes (who produce no insulin) more effectively control the disease. The researchers next plan to study whether they can vastly increase the known amount of time the islet cells can continue to live and produce insulin within the body, into spans of years rather than months.

Implantable islet cells could control diabetes without insulin injections | MIT News – goo.gl/alerts/pVskXm #GoogleAlerts

— Jim Myers (@kidneystories.bsky.social) Mar 27, 2026 at 3:27 AM

The actual process works by taking islet cells that could otherwise be transplanted on their own, and encapsulating them in a protective device to keep the body’s immune response from rejecting them. Without more direct access to bloodborne oxygen, however, the question was how the insulin-producing islet cells could supply themselves with energy. This was addressed in a particularly science fiction-sounding way, by creating a miniature onboard oxygen generator, in which a “proton-exchange membrane” accesses water vapor found naturally in the body, breaking it down into hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen subsequently diffuses, while the oxygen passes through a permeable membrane to feed the islet cells. Ideally, this kind of system could render this sort of transplant possible to simulate normal pancreas function, while not requiring the patient to be on potentially debilitating immune-suppressing drugs. In other words, it would be essentially a best-case scenario for medium to long-term insulin generation, which could decrease the necessity of those with diabetes needing to take frequent insulin injections.

The name of the game, at the end of the day, is developing new ways to allow actual cells, implanted within the body, to produce enzymes and proteins that would be the equivalent of drugs the patient would otherwise need to be regularly taking. A similar method of delivery could eventually be used in implanting cells that could produce antibodies or other enzymes to help with a wide array of conditions or diseases.

“We think that these technologies could provide a long-term way to treat human disease by making drugs in the body instead of outside of the body,” said MIT’s Daniel Anderson, the senior author of the study. “There are many protein therapies where patients must receive repeated, lengthy infusions. We think it may be possible to create a device that could continuously create protein therapeutics on demand and as needed by the patient.”

Which is all to say: Wow, the concept of restoring insulin generation to someone who has lost it, or never had it, would be quite a scientific milestone to achieve. Almost 40 million Americans suffer from some form of diabetes, and roughly 1.8 million have the rarer Type 1 diabetes, which requires constant management of insulin levels. To be able to give those patients more consistent peace of mind would be a very worthy, noble accomplishment.