Transplanted pig cells: A solution for Diabetes sufferers?

Newswise — At present, there are over fourteen million diabetes sufferers in the United States the Center for Disease Control estimates that another six million cases go undiagnosed.

A recent series of articles in the New York Times suggested that diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses account for the nation’s number one cause of emergency room visits. In Type 1 diabetes the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing “islet” cells located in the pancreas.

Since islet cells cannot repair or reproduce themselves, researchers have been actively pursuing cell transplantation for diabetes.

While the availability of human islet cells is limited by the supply of human donor tissue, xenotransplantation, or the process of transplanting organs from one species to another, could provide an essentially unlimited supply of islet cells for transplantation.

MicroIslet Inc. is a biotechnology company that believes its proprietary xenotransplantation technology may overcome many of the obstacles that have plagued islet cell transplantation.

Pigs, whose insulin differs from the human variant by just a single amino acid, are a well-established source for human therapeutics (historically, most of the insulin used to treat humans has been derived from pigs).

To protect transplanted cells from rejection by the patient’s immune system, MicroIslet has developed a unique method of microencapsulation. The process, coats porcine islet cells with a highly biocompatible biopolymer derived from seaweed.

This covering around the islets effectively blocks a patient’s immune system from recognizing the transplanted material as foreign.

A minimally invasive method is all that is needed to implant the microencapsulated porcine islets into the abdominal cavity.

The procedure is designed to provide physiologic and self-regulating blood glucose control, ultimately enabling diabetics to become free of insulin injections and the toxic immunosuppressive drug regimens that traditionally accompany transplants.

MicroIslet’s poster abstract concerning part of the Company’s research efforts, entitled, “Encapsulated Single Porcine Islet Cells Confer Long-Term In Vivo Function,” has recently been accepted for inclusion in the upcoming XXII International Congress Of The Transplantation Society.

The conference will be held August 10-14, 2008, at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre in Sydney, Australia, with MicroIslet’s poster presentation scheduled for August 13th, 2008.

For those covering diabetes and/or international health news, MicroIslet Inc. offers as expert commentators Dr. Amaresh Basu, and Dr. Ingrid Stuiver

Biography on Experts:

Amaresh Basu, PhD (VP of R&D) and Ingrid Stuiver, PhD (Senior Director of R&D)

Amaresh Basu, Ph.D.
Vice-President of Research & Development

Prior to joining MicroIslet, Dr. Basu was the Director of Process Sciences and Project Management at Chemicon/Upstate (a division of Millipore Corporation (NYSE:MIL - News)) where he managed bulk reagents, custom projects, manufacturing, and quality control processes.

Prior to joining Chemicon in 2003, Dr. Basu held pharmacology, analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, and product development positions for Galileo Pharmaceuticals (2001-2003), Ancile Pharmaceuticals (1998-2001), and Trega Biosciences (formerly Houghten Pharmaceuticals, 1993-1998).

He was a Senior Scientist at The Upjohn Company from 1992 to 1993, where he established high throughput screening for HIV drugs.

He held academic positions in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, where he authored approximately 20 publications in peer reviewed journals.

 Dr. Basu received his Ph.D. from University of Poona, India in biochemistry and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer and HIV research in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Ingrid Stuiver, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Research & Development

Dr. Stuiver is a cell and molecular biologist with extensive research experience in cancer, inflammation, signal transduction and adhesion receptor biology.

She joined the MicroIslet team in 2001 and is now the Sr. Director of Research. She has been an important contributor to the success of MicroIslets’ xenotransplantation programs.

Before joining MicroIslet, Dr. Stuiver was the Assistant Director of Clinical Research and Research Scientist at Maxia Pharmaceuticals.

At Maxia, she was instrumental in the development, design and implementation of phase I-III Clinical Trials for a non-surgical treatment of cervical dysplasia.

During this time, she also led a successful Preclinical screening program, finding leads for the treatment of inflammation and osteoarthritis.

Prior to her industrial experience, Dr. Stuiver was a Sr. Research Associate/Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute and studied adhesion receptors in cancer, hemostasis, thrombosis and the Central Nervous System.

r. Stuiver received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona in 1992 and her BA in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1985.