SANA reports 1 year survival of transplanted insulin producing islets without immunosuppression

Today, Sana biotechnology announced a historic milestone. The insulin producing islets they engineered to survive in humans without potentially fatal immunosuppression drugs have now been observed to avoid rejection for 1 year and still produce insulin. A type 1 diabetes cure is on the horizon and Sana seems to be on pace to be first to market by several years. They presented at the JP Morgan 2026 healthcare conference. You can view their presentation here: [https://ir.sana.com/node/9796/html](https://ir.sana.com/node/9796/html) Picture of the most relevant data slides below: https://preview.redd.it/ocjpe35m8edg1.png?width=1285&format=png&auto=webp&s=0db11d59a748353996e08d129866717b06a52503 CEO Steve Harr noted that insulin expression was reduced at 52 weeks, but this was to be expected due to the age of the person who donated the islets. Importantly, the islets showed no signs of rejection, validating Sana's novel immune evasive anti-rejection technology. Sana will start a phase 1 trial of their lab-grown insulin producing cells this year. It is expected that these cells will produce adequate levels of insulin for several years, as a company named Vertex demonstrated in their clinical trial (VX880) that their own lab grown insulin producing cells functioned for many years, albeit requiring immunosuppression, which directly lead to one of the trial patient's deaths. Sana's immune evasion technology solves this problem, avoiding the need for immunosuppression altogether.