Some Pancreatic Cells Are Just One Genetic Tweak Away From Treating Diabetes

The researchers engineered ductal cells, which—as some previous studies had found—occasionally transform into beta cells all on their own. This is an unusual phenomenon among cells in adult bodies, which tend to be firmly fixed in their identities, and it hinted to the scientists that these ductal cells would be a good place to start.

Scientists previously had no clue what genes were driving this metamorphosis, said Jian Li, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School who led the recent study in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers therefore took an approach called a genetic screen, which involves breaking little bits of DNA all across the genome to see which are important for a certain biological process. It’s a bit like individually removing pieces of a car engine without a schematic and seeing what breaks to learn which components are involved in delivering fuel or are essential for steering.