Type 1 diabetes is a disease that impacts millions of patients around the world. Because
of the severity of the disease and the multitude of associated conditions that can develop if it is
not properly controlled, improving treatment options for people with Type 1 diabetes is of
extreme importance. Stem cells offer one route to accomplish this, but at the moment, many
methods of differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into pancreatic beta cells are
not as efficient as they need to be for large-scale production of beta cells. Modified mRNA has
been used in the differentiation protocols of other cell types, so it has potential to be used in the
differentiation of pancreatic beta cells as well. This study will evaluate the current feasibility of
using modRNA to facilitate the differentiation of iPSCs into pancreatic beta cells through
experimentation and examination of the literature. The use of lipofection as a transfection
method will be examined using the gene PDX1 as an example, and the success of each
transfection factor will be assessed using c-peptide staining.
