CBE Seminar Series: Minglin Ma, Cornell University

Description

Developing Advanced Biomaterials and Devices for Type 1 Diabetes Cell Replacement Therapies Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease where the patients’ insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells are mistakenly destroyed by their own immune system. It affects millions of people in the world many of whom are children. The only therapy available is based on insulin injections or infusion which can keep the patients alive but unfortunately do not cure the disease or prevent many devastating diabetic effects. Replacing the missing islet cells with immunoprotected donor islets or more ideally stem cell-derived insulin producing cells has been considered as a promising alternative to the insulin therapy. However, before the cell replacement concept becomes a clinical reality many challenges need to be addressed including the foreign body responses against the cell encapsulation materials, the suboptimal cell survival and function, and various safety concerns especially when stem cell-derived cells are used. In this talk, I will discuss our recent efforts to develop different types of biomaterials and cell delivery devices targeting some of the above-mentioned challenges. Biography: Minglin Ma is an Associate Professor at the Biological and Environmental Engineering Department of Cornell University. He received his BS degree from Tsinghua University and PhD from MIT, both in Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining Cornell in 2013, he worked as a Lead Scientist at General Electric Global Research Center and as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Robert Langer’s laboratories at MIT Koch Institute. His group are interested in developing advanced biomaterials for agricultural and biomedical applications with a particular focus on cell replacement therapies for type 1 diabetes.