This spring, Sana Biotechnology and Mayo Clinic announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of SC451, an investigational stem cell-derived pancreatic islet cell therapy for type 1 diabetes. The partnership will combine Mayo Clinic's expertise in transplant medicine, immunology, surgical techniques, and clinical trial design to help standardize the delivery of SC451 and prepare it for broader clinical use. Sana expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial of SC451 as early as this year.
The announcement builds on another major milestone published this summer in The New England Journal of Medicine. Fourteen-month follow-up data from an investigator-sponsored study showed that donor-derived pancreatic islet cells engineered with Sana's hypoimmune (HIP) technology continued to survive, evade immune detection, and produce insulin without immunosuppression more than one year after transplantation. These findings provide important proof that the technology can help transplanted islet cells survive and function without immunosuppression and further support the development of SC451.
For DRC supporters, this progress is especially meaningful. Former DRC-funded researcher Dr. Leonardo Ferreira is an inventor on patents related to genome editing that renders transplanted cells invisible to the immune system. Developed as part of a DRC-funded research project, those patents were licensed by Sana Biotechnology and contributed to the development of its proprietary HIP technology.
While SC451 remains investigational, these milestones demonstrate how early-stage seed funding can help launch discoveries that continue advancing toward the clinic. We're proud to have supported research that contributed to this promising technology and look forward to following its continued progress.
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