During the earliest stages of human development, the body's immune system becomes educated to what is "self". In turn, the immune system will attack unknown or "foreign" cells. This education process takes place in the thymus gland which dramatically shrinks in size as we age. DRI scientists are developing a method to access the smaller thymus in an effort to utilize this gland to re-educate the recipient to donor cells. This process would be initiated prior to the transplantation of islets or other tissue. One approach is to insert donor molecules into natural occurring lipids or fats. These new structures, called liposomes, are injected into the recipient's blood stream and ideally, would glow to the thymus, establishing the "classroom" for re-education of the recipient's immune system.