Congratulations to Dr. Cherie Stabler and her collaborators at the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami lead by Dr. Camillo Ricordi, who were awarded a 3-year grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) on their collaborative project entitled, “Development of an Extrahepatic Site for Islet Transplant without Continuous Immunosuppression.”

This grant, which provides $3 million in funding, will focus on improving cell-based treatments for people with Type 1 Diabetes by optimizing transplant sites, engineering bioactive scaffolds for housing the cells, and generating protective coatings to prevent immune attack.

Stabler, an associate professor and associate chair for graduate studies in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, seeks to develop bioactive materials capable of: protecting cells from immunological attack; providing 3-D support of the transplanted cells; presenting cues for guiding positive host cell remodeling; and releasing therapeutic agents. Through the fabrication of novel biomaterials capable of actively interfacing with the host, she seeks to optimize the graft environment to favor the long-term survival and function of the implanted cells.