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In patients who suffer from Type I diabetes, pancreatic beta cells are killed off by the immune system. Lilly and Sigilon plan to encapsulate induced pluripotent stem cells that are engineered into insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Ultimately, the companies hope, these products can restore a person’s insulin production without alarming their immune system.

Sigilon Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) granted Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) exclusive, worldwide rights to Sigilon’sType I diabetes program in a deal potentially worth over $470 million.

The startup is developing what it calls “living therapeutics” — drugs based on engineered cells that can fight a range of disorders when implanted in the body.

Today Sigilon is announcing a $473 million pact with Eli Lilly — which is stepping out under a bolder R&D chief in Dan Skovronsky — to drive their stem cell work on Type 1 diabetes into the clinic, with $63 million of that in an upfront and the rest divvied up with a goal of fully funding the development of a durable new therapy for the disease.

Medgadget editor Tom Peach recently spoke with Devyn Smith PhD, Chief Strategy Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics, to learn more about the company’s technology.

“Biotechs are surrounded by innovation; they make science fiction—a digital pill, 3D printing, wearable technology—a reality; are located in trendy tech hubs like San Francisco, San Diego, and Boston; and most importantly, they offer hope.”

A few months ago, Flagship unveiled Sigilon Therapeutics, a Cambridge startup that is aiming to develop a new class of “living therapeutics”

Four early-stage venture-funded biotechnology companies have signed leases at 100 Binney St. in Cambridge.

Sigilon’s allogeneic cell therapy implants offer long-term but flexible dosing

Cell and gene therapies hold the promise of providing significant and durable health gains to patients in many disease states and have recently elicited significant investor and partner interest. We cover the current state of industry partnerships and investments, highlight what makes a partnership advantageous, and discuss implications for stem cell therapies.

Afibromer™ protein factories represent a flexible and programmable alternative to gene therapies.

When encapsulated with alginate derivatives that resist the foreign-body response, human embryonic stem cell–derived beta cells restore long-term normoglycemia in immunocompetent mice without the need for immunosuppression.

Implanted spheres of a broad variety of material classes significantly abrogate foreign body reactions and fibrosis in rodent and non-human primates when the spheres are larger than 1.5 mm in diameter.

In vivo screening of a large combinatorial library of alginates identifies materials that elicit a substantially reduced foreign body response.

Host recognition and immune-mediated foreign body response to biomaterials can compromise the performance of implanted medical devices.