Since the 1970s, clinicians have known that people with type 1 diabetes can be treated by transplanting pancreatic islets – clusters of insulin-producing “beta cells” – from a healthy organ donor. The procedure, however, is limited by a shortage of donors. The renowned diabetes researcher Douglas Melton, PhD, at Harvard University, leads a group that developed a way to increase islet supplies by generating pancreatic beta cells in the lab from stem cells. Today, researchers and scientists refine this process by coaxing stem cells to reliably develop into functional beta cells that can be transplanted into patients to produce insulin.