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news.AstraZeneca has signed a five-year collaboration deal with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), under which the parties will investigate adapting a technique to create human beta cells from stem cells for use in finding new treatments for diabetes.
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As part of the deal, AstraZeneca will provide funding for a team of investigators at Harvard and will establish an in-house team in Sweden which will work on the collaboration.
The team at Sweden is led by HSCI co-chairman and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Dr Doug Melton.
The deal aims to better understand how the function of beta cells reduces in diabetes and provide research findings to the broader scientific community through peer-reviewed publications.
Under the deal, scientists from both the parties will jointly work to understand the biology behind the loss of human beta cell function and mass in diabetes.
They will also be responsible for screening compounds against the cells produced to search for potential new medicines that could restore beta cell activity in diabetic patients.
AstraZeneca Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases, Innovative Medicines and Early Development head Marcus Schindler said: "We are excited about the potential of this latest collaboration with Harvard University. Professor Melton’s group has made an extraordinary breakthrough in the differentiation of human stem cells into human beta cells and our scientists are extremely excited to be working alongside his team.
"Harnessing this new technology has the potential to transform the research and development of new treatments for patients with diabetes."
Image: AstraZeneca headquarters in London, UK. Photo: courtesy of AstraZeneca plc.