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Article History

Received: 14 October 2019

Accepted: 3 February 2020

First Online: 26 February 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The use of all human material used in this study has been approved by the relevant ethics committees as detailed below.Donor tissue was taken after obtaining written informed consent from the donor’s family for studies approved by the NRES Committee East of England, Cambridge South for the Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, REC reference; 15/EE/0152 and the NRES Committee East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee for the Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, REC reference; 16/EE/0227. Pancreas cancer tissue was obtained from patients undergoing pancreatic resection surgery who had given full written informed consent for studies approved by the NRES Cambridgeshire 2 Research Ethics Committee for Human Research Tissue Bank, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, REC reference; 11/EE/0011 and NRES Committee London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee for the Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, REC reference; 15/LO/0753. Samples were taken by clinical histopathologists after gross examination of the resected tissue. Pancreatic islets were obtained from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) Islet Isolation Center (NRES West Midlands- South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee, REC reference; 16/WM/0093).All animal experiments were approved by the UK Home Office and by the University of Cambridge and performed in accordance with UK Home Office regulations (UK Home Office Project License number PPL 70/8702 and PPL P57643EBB).

: Not applicable.

: B.A. and H.W. are executive managers of Cellendes, which commercialises chemically defined hydrogels. B.A. and H.W. provided components for the hydrogel experiments but were not involved in performing or analysing the experiments and/or interpreting the results. Hydrogel experiments were performed and analysed independently by N.G. and N.P. Cellendes has applied for patent protection for the composition of the chemically defined hydrogel and seeks to commercialise it.