islet cell

As an alternative to transplanting islets into the liver, which has limited success because cells tend to die off there, Dr. Camillo Ricordi and his colleagues at the Diabetes Research Institute in Florida are working on a tiny, implantable device that creates a safe haven for islet production elsewhere in the body. I call it a “reverse IUD” because an IUD is implanted specifically as an intrusion, to interrupt the natural course of cell bonding,…