John Cammett
Co-Chairman and Founding Partner of Realterm, and Passionate Seed Funder of Breakthrough T1D Center of Excellence in New England
Project ACT
Accelerating cell therapies today for cures tomorrow
Breakthrough T1D has a clear mission: accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent, and treat T1D and its complications.
We also have a clear vision of how to achieve that mission: our cures strategy, which includes cell therapies.
Project Accelerate Cell Therapies, or Project ACT, is our game plan to make cell therapies a reality for millions around the world who live with T1D.
What is Project ACT?
Project ACT is a Breakthrough T1D initiative to dramatically speed cell therapy products as T1D cures through coordinated efforts to simultaneously advance research, development, regulatory, access, and adoption.
Cell therapies could cure people with T1D. By safely accelerating their development more people will have access to these treatments more quickly.
How Project ACT works
We know that cell therapies will allow us to walk away from T1D. Project ACT is the roadmap for getting there sooner—and here’s what that looks like.
Research and Development
Invest in novel protection strategies by providing cells to researchers, funding innovative research, and building on the work being done in our Centers of Excellence.
Clinical Testing
Develop guidelines for clinical trial models, recruitment, and endpoints to expedite the pathway to approval.
Regulatory Policy
Influence and de-risk regulatory pathways to further accelerate approvals for cell therapies.
Health Policy
Build and expand pathways for access and coverage of first and future cell therapies.
Medical Affairs
Resource health care professionals for clinical readiness to ensure seamless implementation and adoption of these therapies when approved.
What are cell therapies?
People with T1D no longer have functioning beta cells, which are the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. The immune system has destroyed them. If we can manufacture insulin-producing cells and safely put them inside the body to replace the cells that were lost, we’ll have cured this disease.
To do this, we’re working on developing an unlimited source of beta cells from stem cells. Today, cells like these that were developed with Breakthrough T1D funding are in human clinical trials—and they’re producing insulin.
The next step is keeping them safe in the body without using drugs that have serious side effects. We’re working on this in several ways, from placing them inside a protective barrier to modifying the cells so they are undetected by the immune system.
Those are cell therapies. Project ACT is going to further accelerate their development.
Why Breakthrough T1D?
Because revolutionizing T1D is something we’ve done before.
Nearly twenty years ago, we launched the Artificial Pancreas Project to bring automated insulin delivery to the T1D community. After years of work, hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants, and countless hours working with the FDA and other regulatory agencies on a regulatory pathway, these systems became a reality for people with T1D.
We will replicate this success in cell therapies.
Over the last 25 years, we have invested more than $250M and funded more than 300 cell therapy research projects, with more than 30 grants funded and activated in the last fiscal year (2024). Cell therapies in human clinical trials, including those developed by Vertex, were made possible by Breakthrough T1D funding and critical work by our colleagues at the T1D Fund.
We have the people, history, experience, and supporters needed to deliver on Project ACT.
Project ACT founding donors
The Tullman Family
An Anonymous Donor
My goal is to take off my insulin pump. I believe Project ACT will get me there. Breakthrough T1D has the passion and track record to achieve its mission, advancing cures for type 1 diabetes.”
Learn more about our mission
We will continue to fund the best research until this disease is a thing of the past.
Our work helps advance treatments, influence policy, and improve access to care.
No organization does more to improve lives and drive toward cures for type 1 diabetes.
