Adocia announced it is developing a hydrogel scaffold that hosts and protects pancreatic ß cells for replacement of the missing cells of people with type 1 diabetes. Among the 25 million people with type 1 diabetes in the world, and despite intensive and sophisticated insulin treatments, some patient’s diabetes are uncontrolled and should require pancreatic cell therapy to survive. Cell therapy consists of the administration of living cells to diabetic patients to restore glycemic control. Since the 1980’s, it has been possible to transplant Langerhans islets taken from the pancreas of a deceased donor. However, despite health authorities’ approval, this technique is restricted to a very limited population due to remaining issues: Scarcity of donors. The need for immunosuppressive drugs - to avoid the foreign cells to be rejected by immune system - is increasing the risk of infections and certain cancers. To solve these issues, Adocia has designed a new type of hydrogel scaffold able to host transplanted cells allowing them to release insulin while protecting them from immune reaction.