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Aspect Biosystems plans to generate clinical data next year from a pipeline of cell therapies designed to work without chronic immune suppression, founder and CEO Tamer Mohamed said in an Innovation Spotlight presentation at the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa in Phoenix on Monday, October 5, 2026.
Mohamed set out preclinical data for two lead programs: a bioprinted adrenal tissue for primary adrenal insufficiency, and a gene-edited stem cell islet product for type 1 diabetes. Each uses one of the company’s two immune evasion technologies – encapsulating cells within bioprinted materials, and hypoimmune cell engineering.
He described primary adrenal insufficiency as a rare disease in the US affecting about 50,000 patients who have lost the ability to produce cortisol. They “live on daily glucocorticoids multiple times a day for the rest of their life”, he said, and remain “subject to adrenal crises, which can kill you”.
Aspect’s candidate is a flexible, multilayered tissue designed to be implanted under the skin, Mohamed said. Cells sit in the core of each fiber, surrounded by a semi-permeable hydrogel intended to let the hormone ACTH in and cortisol out while keeping immune cells out, and an outer layer built to encourage blood vessel growth and dampen foreign body response. He said “this entire tissue is produced in a matter of a couple of minutes”.
He then showed data from rodents whose adrenal glands had been surgically removed. Animals given the cell-based implant had a detectable basal level of plasma cortisol and a stimulated response when injected with ACTH, while a cell-free control group had no significant cortisol, he said, adding that the data “demonstrates a proof of concept of our tissue”.
In type 1 diabetes, Mohamed said, Aspect is instead applying its hypoimmune technology to stem cell islets that would be infused into the body. The approach combines multiple knock-outs intended to prevent T-cell activation with multiple knock-ins intended to prevent NK cell, complement and macrophage activation, he said.
“We have a total of seven edits, and we believe that our technology is best in class, and we’re driving this towards the clinic next year,” he said.
He said multiple manufacturing runs “at a significant scale” had consistently shown “very high beta cell purity”, and that the company had demonstrated its cells were capable of correcting diabetes in diabetic animal models, bringing blood glucose “to the human set points”.
Aspect has more than 140 staff and “over $500 million raised”, Mohamed said.
About Aspect Biosystems
Aspect Biosystems is a privately held biotechnology company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, co-founded in 2013. Its website lists the adrenal program as preclinical.
Aspect and Novo Nordisk have collaborated since 2023. In January 2026 the companies said Aspect had acquired rights to stem cell-derived islet cell and hypoimmune cell engineering technologies from Novo Nordisk and would lead development, manufacturing and commercialisation. Novo Nordisk has defined rights to expand its role in later-stage development and commercialisation, and agreed to make an additional equity investment and provide research funding.
In April 2026 Aspect announced a C$79 million investment from the Government of Canada in support of a C$280 million multi-year project. The company announced in January 2025 that it had closed a US$115 million Series B led by Dimension, and in July 2025 reported that its adrenal tissues remained functional for more than six months in adrenalectomized mice.
Onyx previously covered Aspect’s Novo Nordisk agreement and Government of Canada partnership, and profiled the company in From paper to pancreas.
Sources: Aspect Biosystems Innovation Spotlight presentation, Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, October 5, 2026; Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa agenda and presenter listing; Aspect Biosystems programs and about pages; Aspect Biosystems and Novo Nordisk press release, January 20, 2026; Aspect Biosystems press releases of April 2, 2026, July 14, 2025 and January 8, 2025
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