Our approach

We are focused on developing a first-in-class regenerative treatment for type 1 diabetes. Restoring the patient’s endogenous beta cells to increase insulin production would be a game-changer for diabetic patients, potentially eliminating the need for exogenous insulin in some patients.

Patrick Collombat

Co-Founder & PhD

DiogenX’ lead program is focused on modulating the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway to regenerate pancreatic insulin-producing beta cells.

Our lead drug candidate is a novel recombinant protein, intended to regenerate functional pancreatic islets. The company leverages the breakthrough discovery from the laboratory of Dr Patrick Collombat (Inserm, CNRS, Nice University) on pancreatic beta-cell.

Diogenx candidate specifically activates the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway in pancreatic beta cells. The Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is a highly conserved pathway, normally acting during embryonic development and in regenerating tissues. By modulating this pathway in beta cells, our drug candidate induces their replication. The company has demonstrated its efficacy in preventing and reversing diabetes in in vivo models of type 1 diabetes and achieved a first proof of principle with a significant increase in functional insulin-producing human beta cells in preclinical experiments.

Long term exposure was well tolerated in preclinical studies, supporting the ability to safely intervene on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway with DiogenX’s approach. By restoring a functional pancreatic function, DiogenX drug candidate could also avoid episodes of hypoglycemia, a common, yet severe, side effects of insulin administration.

Our drug candidate has the potential to become the first off-the-shelf solution to regenerate pancreatic beta cells and the first disease-modifying treatment against symptomatic type 1 diabetes.

For the last century and the first use of exogenous insulin, there has been no new treatment for T1D patients. In 2023, the first disease modifying drug was approved, for non symptomatic patients, with the aim to protect remaining beta cells and prevent or delay diabetes onset.

Although this is a milestone for patients, there is currently a strong need for further options for symptomatic patients, to slow down, stop and eventually reverse the course of the disease. In this context, DiogenX’s approach has a unique off-the shelf profile for symptomatic T1D patients.

With the potential to regenerate the patient’s own beta cell and restore its own pancreatic function, DiogenX’s lead candidate could have broad clinical utility, in monotherapy and/or in combination with insulins and therapies that replace or protect beta cells.

It is currently in pre-IND development.

DIOGENX