Participating in a marathon is a pretty amazing feat for anyone, but five people taking part in the 26.2-mile Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7 share something that makes this amazing feat extra special: all of them were formerly dependent on insulin, but have had an islet cell transplant and are now living their lives diabetes-free!
Islet cell transplantation is what connects the five together as members of the athletic team Cellmates On The…
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More islet cell research to share with you today:
We’ve been covering quite a few companies working hard at finding ways to protect islets from immune system attack. First we profiled Cerco Medical, which is also the subject of a documentary film, and a couple of weeks ago we checked in with ViaCyte, of San Diego. Both of those companies are working with stem cells, but today’s company, Canada’s Sernova, is kicking it old school…
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Filmmakers Lisa Hepner and her husband, Guy Mossman, are on a mission to bring the story of diabetes and the quest to find a cure to the silver screen. For Lisa, it’s not just professional — it’s personal. Lisa was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 20 years ago while in college and has worked for the past 15 years producing documentaries for the likes of Discovery Channel, TLC, MTV and PBS. Now she wants to…
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Lots of organizations are working on new ways to accomplish islet cell transplantation in which the immune system does not kill off the transplanted cells. If they could do that, we’d likely have a cure for diabetes. But it ain’t easy, especially because we’re talking about transplanting into people whose immune systems are in mega-attack mode to begin with (type 1 diabetics).
The Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) in Florida is currently working on this challenge…
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By
AmyT on
September 5, 2007
The Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami never fails to sharpen the cutting-edge of D-research. Its latest invention is the so-called “oxygen sandwich” — a sort of gasket gadget designed to keep impermeable plastic from killing off insulin-producing beta cells incubating in the laboratory, bound for transplantation.
From the press release:
“One of the major challenges to islet cell transplantation as the treatment of choice for type 1 diabetes is the shortage of…
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