Backed by the Look to Michigan Strategic Initiative Fund, the collaboration aims to accelerate patient-derived cell therapies to pioneer comprehensive diabetes treatments.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ --  iReprogram, spun out of the University of Michigan (U-M), was named lead industry partner in the newly launched Michigan Initiative to Reprogram Cells for Diabetes (MIRC-D). Supported by the U-M Strategic Initiative Fund, the multimillion-dollar effort unites experts across seven university departments, three industry leaders, and a key nonprofit partner, a coalition assembled by iReprogram to accelerate transformative cell therapies.

MIRC-D integrates mathematics, biology, and computer science around three core objectives: applying artificial intelligence to sharpen the cell reprogramming recipe discovery engine's predictive accuracy, expanding workflows across key diabetes-related cell types, and feeding experimental outcomes back into the engine for continuous optimization. Beyond pancreatic beta cells, validation efforts will focus on targets driving diabetic kidney, cardiovascular, retinal, and fibrotic diseases.

"For over a century, medicine has managed diabetes rather than repaired it," said Dr. Ganesh S. Palapattu, Interim Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Michigan, Interim CEO, Michigan Medicine and The George F. and Sandy G. Valassis Professor of Urology. "Direct cell reprogramming offers a path to change that. MIRC-D brings together the U-M's multidisciplinary strength to target disease at its core. As a public institution, our commitment is to transform that science into real solutions for patients, starting with diabetes and scaling to other chronic human diseases globally." 

The initiative leverages two foundational iReprogram technologies: the Data-Guided Control (DGC) platform, the cell reprogramming recipe discovery engine, predicts the precise timing, dosage, and transcription factors required to transform cell identities, and the Gold Standard Workflow (GoldSW), which validates those predictions at scale by feeding real-world experimental data back into the DGC engine to create a continuous, self-improving loop of scientific discovery.

"This partnership validates our vision: treating chronic disease requires addressing the root cause at the cellular level,". said Pradeep Seneviratne, CEO of iReprogram "With U-M's backing and our combined technology platform, we are shifting the paradigm from managing diabetes symptoms to actively restoring healthy cell function."

Learn more about how iReprogram is revolutionizing cell reprogramming technology at www.ireprogram.com.

About iReprogram. iReprogram, Inc. is a biotechnology company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, building a software platform for cell reprogramming across three modalities: direct reprogramming, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and cell state conversion. Our interdisciplinary team across biology, mathematics, computer science and AI shares a single aim: to make cell state programmable. Powered by our patented algorithms, we predict the transcription factor combinations, dosages, and timing required to convert one cell type into a functional target. Our technology revolutionizes the frontiers of biological repair, driving patient-specific therapies for chronic degenerative conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, kidney disease, fibrosis, and aging with board applicability to make a meaningful impact on the lives of every human being.

About MIRC-D. The Michigan Initiative to Reprogram Cells for Diabetes is funded by the University of Michigan Strategic Initiative Fund and led in partnership with iReprogram. It brings together seven U-M departments, three industry partners and one nonprofit partner to develop and validate a predictive platform for converting a patient's own cells into the cell types diabetes damages.

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SOURCE iReprogram Inc.