DiaCell Therapeutics

DiaCell Therapeutics is developing an autologous therapy that turns a patient's own cells into induced pluripotent stem cells and then into insulin-producing islets. The goal is a transplant that needs little or no lifelong immunosuppression. It is led by Dr. James Shapiro, the transplant surgeon behind the Edmonton Protocol. The company reports that in 2022 it reversed diabetes in mouse models using human autologous stem cells. It places first-in-human trials 18 to 24 months out, so this is a preclinical program with no human data yet. DiaCell frames its market as diabetes broadly rather than type 1 alone, though autologous islet replacement is aimed squarely at people whose beta cells have already been destroyed.

Location

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Founded

~2025