A local charity has donated Pounds 350,000 towards the cost of research at De Montfort University on a "chemical pancreas" to alleviate the effect of diabetes.
The Edith Murphy Foundation, established by the widow of Leicestershire businessman Hughie Murphy, will allow the research team to advance work to its pre-clinical stage within 15 months.
Project head Joan Taylor said the gift meant that fund-raising involving the issue of shares in a university company has been abandoned.