This is scientific American's 60 Second Science. I'm Christopher Intalyata. Got a minute?

One of the great promises of stem cell biology is to use a patient's own cells as a template

to build a real working organ or tissue in the lab.

One prime example, a treatment for diabetes

by turning stem cells into working pancreatic beta cells, which release insulin.

The existing beta cells that our lab and others have created were, I'd say 90% of the way there,

but 90% still means not functional.

Ron Evans, a molecular biologist at the Salt Institute.

Evans compares the first batch of stem cell-derived beta cells they made to a darkened room.

If you walk into that room, there may be everything in it that you need to be a complete room

with furniture and chairs and everything else, but it's dark and the key is what do you need to turn on the light?

That light switch Evans discovered is a gene

called estrogen-related receptor gamma.

Flip it on and it activates a genetic circuit

that ramps up mitochondria production, powers up the cell,

and endows the almost functional beta cells

with the ability to sense glucose and release insulin in response.

Evans team recently used that trick to transform stem cells into beta cells that work just like they would in a healthy pancreas.

And when they transplanted those cells into mice with a mouse version of diabetes,

blood glucose levels fell to normal levels in half the rodents.

The results are in the journal

Cell metabolism. Next Evan says he'll replicate the test in diabetic primates.

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