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Diabetes research gets animal replacement funding boost

BetaCell Birmingham facility to receive funding from NC3Rs to create the largest capacity production of pancreatic beta cell organoids in the UK

10 December 2024
A middle-aged female researcher wearing a white lab coat and latex gloves looking down a microscope

Diabetes researchers will benefit from a funding boost that will see the University of Birmingham become the largest producer of animal-alternative pancreatic beta cell organoids in the UK.

The BetaCell Birmingham facility, led by Dr Ildem Akerman from the University of Birmingham’s College of Medicine and Health, will receive £263k from the NC3Rs to increase the production capacity and anticipates that up to 45,000 mice could be replaced with the technology.

The BetaCell Birmingham facility currently supports academics across the UK with insulin secreting organoids derived from human stem cells for diabetes research on a collaborative basis but demand exceeds supply. The Akerman research Team and Ms Christine Stephens, the facility technician, will expand the production capacity of the facility by transitioning to a larger perfusion-based suspension bioreactor and introducing automation. This will increase the number of organoids they can provide to researchers to replace mouse-derived islets.

This funding represents a major forward leap for both typeI and TypeII diabetes research as we are able to significantly expand the production capacity of our facility.

Dr Ildem Akerman

Dr Ildem Akerman, Associate Professor in Functional Genomics at the University of Birmingham and lead researcher of the BetaCell Birmingham facility said:

“This funding represents a major forward leap for both typeI and TypeII diabetes research as we are able to significantly expand the production capacity of our facility. Our facility generates human stem cell derived insulin-secreting beta cells which could replace the use of mouse models in diabetes research, building on the pioneering protocols of other researchers.

“BetaCell Birmingham is already collaborating with Imperial College London and Oxford University to advance research into how insulin-secreting beta cells may in future be used for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes patients. We have already started shipping tiny vials of live cells to be used by specialist bioengineers around the country, and with this new funding many more researchers will be able to use and advance their research without the use of mice.”

 

National funding award

BetaCell is one of 21 projects receiving a total of £4.85m by the NC3Rs to accelerate the use of non-animal approaches in research. The awards have been supported with funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to accelerate the uptake of non-animal approaches and replace animal-derived products in research and testing.

The NC3Rs has been pioneering the development, validation and adoption of models that apply the latest technological advances to replace animal use in research and testing for the past 20 years. The success of replacement approaches and the scientific benefits they can offer is one of the drivers behind decreasing animal use, with recent statistics showing that the number of scientific procedures involving living animals in Great Britain in 2023 was the lowest since 2001.

Professor Julia Buckingham CBE, Chair of the NC3Rs Board said:

“The NC3Rs has led the way for the past 20 years in developing, validating and promoting the adoption of non-animal approaches in the biosciences. This substantive investment from DSIT is a major landmark in our journey, enabling a step-change in infrastructure to advance the work at scale and paving the way for non-animal derived products to become the reagents of choice in in vitro studies.”

BetaCell Birmingham is one of the many examples where the University of Birmingham is working across disciplines to advance new technologies and treatments that enable people to live longer, healthier and happier lives. Our researchers are collaborating with the NHS and other health partners to turn medical science into innovative patient and healthcare technologies.

Notes for editors

  • For media enquiries please contact Tim Mayo, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7815 607 157.
  • The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.
  • England’s first civic university, the University of Birmingham is proud to be rooted in of one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the country. A member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 global network of research universities, the University of Birmingham has been changing the way the world works for more than a century.
  • The University of Birmingham is a founding member of Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), a strategic alliance which transcends organisational boundaries to rapidly translate healthcare research findings into new diagnostics, drugs and devices for patients. Birmingham Health Partners is a strategic alliance between seven organisations who collaborate to bring healthcare innovations through to clinical application:
    • University of Birmingham
    • University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
    • Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
    • Aston University
    • The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
    • Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
    • West Midlands Academic Health Science Network
    • Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Featured staff

  • Dr Ildem Akerman

    Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellow

    Staff profile for Dr Ildem Akerman, Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellow and Associate Professor in Functional Genomics at the Department of Metabolism and Systems Research, College of Medicine and Health.

    Phone: +44 (0)121 414 6857
    Email: i.akerman@bham.ac.uk

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