The laboratory is in the Westmead Millennium Institute.

Called the Patrick and Jane Wilde Laboratory, it is named after two major benefactors of the institute who have long helped medical research.

Mr Wilde is also the president of the Millennium Foundation.

Scientists at the institute's Centre for Transplant and Renal Research are working towards a cure for type 1 diabetes. They hope to stop the need for insulin injections by developing transplants.

This would greatly benefit people like eight-year-old Lazar Mijatovic of Merrylands, who has had type 1 diabetes for a year.

The Westmead Millennium Institute tested transplanting insulin-producing cells from human donors in patients with type 1 diabetes whose original cells had been destroyed.

It found that three out of six patients stopped insulin injections completely.

Researchers previously used three smaller laboratories to do their work.

The director of transplantation, Associate Professor Philip O'Connell, said the new lab highlighted the pioneering work of the institute.

``We started off as a fairly modest operation, but because of the quality of the work being done here we've been more successful at getting grants and therefore we've been doing much more ambitious research,'' he said. ``We needed a new facility that was more worker- friendly. It is a much better work space with more opportunities for collaboration. It's more cohesive.

``Now we can be more efficient.

``We can house more staff and there'll be more talking and making things work and sharing ideas.

``This laboratory is a mark of the successes out here in western Sydney.''

Associate Professor O'Connell said the laboratory was a ``stepping stone'' to an even bigger research facility that it is hoped will be built within the Westmead medical precinct.

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