Insulin injections are the conventional method for managing diabetes, but do not effectively eliminate the related health risks associated with periods of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.

In the last decades, transplantation of cadaveric islets have demonstrated significant glycemic control improvements compared to insulin treatment, drastically improving the quality of life for patients. Islet transplantation, however, is currently limited to less than 1% of individuals with diabetes due to lifelong immunosuppression needed to avoid graft rejection.