Is there a cure for type 1 diabetes coming? An endocrinologist reads the 2026 research

There’s no widely available cure for type 1 diabetes yet, but 2026 is the most encouraging year the science has ever had: real patients are living without insulin after islet transplants on gentler anti-rejection drugs, and early research is aiming to remove the immune-suppression tradeoff entirely. It’s still investigational, and it’s not something your endocrinologist can prescribe next month. Here’s the honest read.

Dr. Van Dyke here, board certified endocrinologist. Let’s talk about the question I get more than almost any other from my type 1 patients and their families: is there a cure for type 1 diabetes coming? Every few months a headline says someone was cured. Then a patient brings it to me, hopeful, and asks if it’s real. Let me walk you through what actually happened this year, what it means, and what it doesn’t.

Is there a cure for type 1 diabetes yet?

Not a widely available one. But we now have real people with type 1 diabetes living without insulin, and we have research pointing at a version of this that might not require the tradeoff we currently accept. Both of those are new. Let’s take them one at a time.

What is an islet cell transplant?

Type 1 diabetes happens because the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas, the beta cells that sit inside clusters called islets. Once those cells are gone, your body can’t make insulin, and you inject it for life.

An islet cell transplant is exactly what it sounds like: you replace the missing cells. Islet cells get infused into the liver, where they take up residence and start making insulin again. When it works, blood sugar comes under control and, in the best cases, the person no longer needs injected insulin.

There’s been a version of this for a while. In June 2023, the FDA approved Lantidra (donislecel), the first cellular therapy for type 1 diabetes. But it’s approved for a narrow group: adults with type 1 who keep having dangerous, severe low-blood-sugar episodes despite doing everything right. And it comes with the catch that runs through this entire field: it requires lifelong immunosuppression, the same anti-rejection drugs a transplant patient takes.

So for most people with well-controlled type 1, Lantidra has never been the answer. Two problems have kept islet transplant from being a real cure for the broader population: not enough donor cells to go around, and the price of immunosuppression. The 2026 research is chipping at both.

What did the tegoprubart islet transplant trial show?

This is the readout that got attention this year, and it’s the one my patients are seeing on Facebook.

An investigator-led pilot study at the University of Chicago Medicine, presented at a major diabetes conference in March 2026, treated 12 adults with long-standing type 1 diabetes. These weren’t mild cases. The median duration of diabetes was about 33 years. Each received an islet cell transplant, but with a gentler anti-rejection approach built around tegoprubart, an antibody made by Eledon Pharmaceuticals that avoids the older transplant drugs known to be hard on the kidneys and on the very islet cells you just transplanted.

The result: all 12 patients reached insulin independence. Their most recent A1C values landed below the diabetic threshold, averaging around 5.4%. No rejection episodes. No severe low-blood-sugar events after transplant. No sign of the kidney toxicity the older drugs are known for.

That’s a genuinely striking result, and I want you to feel the hope in it honestly. I also have to be the endocrinologist who tells you the caveats, because that’s my job:

• This was a 12-patient, single-site pilot with no control group and relatively short follow-up.
• These patients still need some immune suppression, just a gentler regimen. This isn’t yet the immunosuppression-free cure.
• It’s investigational. It’s not an approved therapy you can request at your next visit.

What about the Stanford study I read about?

That’s a different, and in some ways bigger, piece of research, and it’s the one pointing at the harder problem.

In late 2025, Stanford Medicine published a study combining a blood stem cell transplant with an islet cell transplant. In mice with type 1 diabetes, this combination cured the disease, five out of five, without immunosuppressive drugs and without graft-versus-host disease, the dangerous complication where transplanted immune cells attack the recipient’s own tissue.

Read that carefully, because the caveat is large and it matters: this was in mice. No humans yet for the combination approach. Stanford has also done early human work on tolerance induction with islet transplant, but the “cured without any anti-rejection drugs” result is, so far, an animal result. That’s how honest medicine reports it.

Why is it exciting anyway? Because the single biggest obstacle between islet transplant and a true cure is the immune system, both rejection and the original autoimmune attack. A method that resets the immune system so it accepts the new cells without a lifetime of drugs is the version everyone actually wants. Stanford’s work is a proof of that idea, in the right direction, at an early stage.

So are we close to a cure?

Here’s my honest framing, and I want to hold both halves of it at once.

The encouraging half: in a few short years we’ve gone from “islet transplant works but requires heavy immunosuppression and there aren’t enough donor cells” to real patients off insulin on gentler regimens, stem-cell-derived cells solving the supply problem, and early research aimed at removing immunosuppression altogether. Programs using lab-grown islet cells are already in later-stage trials. For the first time in my career, a functional cure for type 1 diabetes is a reasonable thing to talk about, not a fantasy.

The sober half: every leading approach today still requires some immunosuppression, most of it is investigational, timelines get oversold, and “presented at a conference” or “submitted to the FDA” isn’t “available at your pharmacy.” Anyone selling you a cell-therapy cure for type 1 today, outside an approved center or a registered clinical trial, deserves a hard second look.

And listen, I take a replacement hormone every single day myself and have since I was 21, so I understand in a personal way what lifelong medication dependence feels like, and why a real cure is worth being both hopeful and careful about. Then back to the science.

What should you do right now?

If you or your child has type 1 diabetes, here’s the practical version:

• Keep managing your type 1 well. The best thing you can do while this field matures is protect your body: good glucose control, time in range, and healthy tissue for whenever these therapies do arrive.
• Ask your endocrinologist about clinical trials if you have severe hypoglycemia unawareness, the group these therapies are being studied in first.
• Be skeptical of anyone selling a cure outside a trial or an approved center. Real cell therapy is specific, monitored, and delivered in the right setting.
• Stay in the loop. This field is moving fast, and the right therapy for you may look different a year from now.

The takeaway

There’s no widely available cure for type 1 diabetes today. But 2026 gave us real people living insulin-free after islet transplant on gentler anti-rejection regimens, and early research aiming to remove immunosuppression entirely. The honest read is that a cure is closer and more plausible than it’s ever been, still investigational, and still a few years out for most people. Hope is warranted. Patience is required. Keep managing well while the science catches up.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a cure for type 1 diabetes in 2026?

Not a widely available one. There are approved and investigational islet cell transplant therapies that have made some patients insulin-independent, but they require immune suppression and are limited to specific groups. Broader cures are still in trials.

What is tegoprubart and why does it matter?

Tegoprubart is an antibody used as a gentler anti-rejection medication after islet transplant. In a 2026 University of Chicago pilot study, all 12 patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes became insulin-independent using a regimen built around it.

Did Stanford cure type 1 diabetes?

Stanford researchers cured type 1 diabetes in mice using a combined blood stem cell and islet cell transplant, with no immunosuppression and no graft-versus-host disease. It hasn’t yet been done in humans for that combined approach.

Does an islet cell transplant require anti-rejection drugs?

Every leading approach today still requires some immune suppression. Removing that requirement is exactly what the newest research, including the Stanford work, is trying to achieve.

Should I wait for a cure instead of managing my diabetes now?

No. The best thing you can do is keep your glucose well controlled while these therapies mature. Good management protects your body for whenever a cure becomes available.

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Living with type 1 and want an endocrinologist who actually keeps up with this? Book a visit at the Advanced Institute for Diabetes & Endocrinology. We see patients in Mansfield, Texas in the office and remotely across seven states.

Drop your type 1 questions in the YouTube comments. We read every one, and they shape what we cover next.

Sources: Breakthrough T1D: 12 of 12 no longer injecting insulin · Eledon Pharmaceuticals data release · HCPLive: Tegoprubart Enables Insulin Independence · Stanford Medicine: mice cured of type 1 diabetes · Stanford Report: immune system reset