Hongkui Deng, PhD

Hongkui Deng, PhD, is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Peking University in Beijing and director of the university's Stem Cell Research Center. His group pioneered a chemical reprogramming approach that generates chemically induced pluripotent stem cell islets, or CiPSC islets. In 2024 he and collaborators published in Cell the one year results of a first-in-human trial of autologous CiPSC-islet transplantation in a type 1 diabetes patient. The islets were placed beneath the abdominal anterior rectus sheath. The patient achieved sustained insulin independence starting 75 days after transplantation, with time in the target glycemic range rising to nearly all of the day. The technology arising from his group is being commercialized through Reprogenix. He earned his doctorate from UCLA.

Affiliation

Professor of Life Sciences and Director of the Stem Cell Research Center, Peking University

Location

Beijing, China