OSAKA -- Japanese medical equipment maker Arkray has developed a system that automates the culturing of insulin-producing pancreatic cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
The system needs tweaking in order to grow the cells in massive quantities, but the hope is that a version for research purposes will be ready within three years, offering a path to the treatment of diabetes by using regenerative medicine to restore the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin.