A Seaweed-Based Polymer Graft for Treating Diabetes, Image 2

A Seaweed-Based Polymer Graft for Treating Diabetes, Image 2

Submitted by Edmond Zaia, Omar Khan, and Arturo Vegas of the Anderson Lab at the Koch Institute

Koch Institute at MIT, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Medical Engineering and Science

"This is a picture of a new biomaterial we have developed to help treat patients with type 1 diabetes. These materials can protect pancreatic stem cells during transplantation. We hope to use this to allow diabetic patients to receive insulin-producing cells. This material is specially designed to be compatible with the human body, which we accomplish by grafting a seaweed-based polymer called alginate onto the surface. In this image, you can see the material surface is porous to allow for the transport of insulin through the material."

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