A groundbreaking new study offers hope that people with diabetes may no longer need to take insulin injections every day.
The research, published in Science Translational Medicine, was led by Assistant Professor Shady Farah from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, working with scientists from MIT, Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Massachusetts.
The study introduces a new kind of implant that acts like a living, artificial pancreas. Once placed in the body, it works completely on its own.
It continuously senses blood sugar levels, makes insulin right inside the implant, and releases the right amount exactly when the body needs it. This means no more insulin shots or pumps—just a smart system working inside the body like a real organ.
One of the biggest challenges with similar treatments in the past was the body’s immune system. The immune system sees implants as foreign objects and attacks them. This often caused the treatments to fail.
To solve this, the scientists created something called a “crystalline shield”—a special coating made of tiny therapeutic crystals that protect the implant from the immune system. Thanks to this innovation, the implant can keep working for years without being rejected.
The new technology has already been tested in animals. In mice, the implant kept blood sugar levels stable for a long time. In monkeys, it showed strong results for keeping the implanted cells alive and working. These tests mark a major step forward and bring the technology closer to being used in human patients.
Assistant Professor Farah started developing this idea back in 2018 during his postdoctoral work at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
He worked under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Anderson and Prof. Robert Langer, a leading expert in tissue engineering and co-founder of Moderna. Today, his lab at the Technion is continuing the work in close partnership with major U.S. research institutions.
Although this implant was designed to treat diabetes, the team believes it could help people with other chronic diseases too. Many conditions, like hemophilia or genetic disorders, require steady delivery of medicine. This living implant could provide those treatments automatically and continuously, just like it does for insulin.
If it succeeds in human trials, this technology could completely change how we treat chronic diseases. Instead of taking medicine every day, patients could rely on one smart, implanted device that handles everything for them.
The study’s co-first authors include Matthew Bochenek (MIT), Shady Farah (Technion), and Joshua Doloff (Johns Hopkins University). Other team members from the Farah lab include Dr. Merna Shaheen-Mualim and former students Neta Kutner and Edward Odeh, who is now a researcher on the project.
This innovative work could mark the beginning of a new chapter in how we treat long-term diseases—by turning therapies into living, self-regulating systems inside the body.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about bananas and diabetes, and honey could help control blood sugar.
For more health information, please see recent studies about Vitamin D that may reduce dangerous complications in diabetes and results showing plant-based protein foods may help reverse type 2 diabetes.
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