Episode 97: Beyond Insulin - Stem Cells, Islet Engineering, and the Future of Diabetes Care with Dr. Quinn Peterson

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Dr. Quinn Peterson, a Mayo Clinic stem cell biologist, to explore how regenerative medicine could move type 1 diabetes from lifelong management to true biological restoration.​✨ Key takeaways:🔥 From lab curiosity to purpose-driven science: how a cancer drug developer pivoted his entire career after his three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and later two more of his children.​🧬 Building transplantable islets, not just beta cells: inside the Mayo Clinic program engineering full pancreatic islets from stem cells to restore a person’s own insulin production.​🧠 Regeneration as the next medical era: why the future is not just fixing defective proteins but replacing missing cells and rejuvenating tissues before disease takes hold.​🤝 Science with patients at the table: how funders like Breakthrough T1D are forcing a shift toward patient and public involvement in shaping research questions and trial design.​📊 Data, digital twins, and AI: a candid look at breaking down clinical data silos, using wearables and records “in the wild,” and what that could mean for trials and personalization.​Episode overviewDr. Koenig introduces Dr. Quinn Peterson as a stem cell biologist and biomedical engineer at Mayo Clinic leading an islet regeneration program aimed at creating functional, transplantable pancreatic islets from pluripotent stem cells. Rather than simply managing glucose with exogenous insulin, Peterson’s work aims to restore lost biological function by engineering living systems that behave like native human tissue.​Quinn shares his origin story: a lifelong fascination with how things work, formal training in biochemistry, and early research careers in water contaminants and then chemotherapeutic drug development. The turning point came when his oldest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age three, eventually followed by two of his other children, prompting a deliberate pivot into diabetes research and postdoctoral training with Doug Melton at Harvard. LINKS:https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenigHere's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/.