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Archive for the ‘Current Research’ Category
Brief Update from Scott
April 8th, 2013
My family leave continues but will be over in a few weeks. I appreciate your patience. There have been many developments on the Islet Sheet Project, which I look forward to telling you about. The VoxPop people have secured funding for their documentary on finding a cure for diabetes, and have changed the film’s working [...]
Support for Encapsulation Is Growing
November 12th, 2012
As regular readers know, I believe that the best prospects for a near-term practical cure for type 1 depend on islet encapsulation technology. And I see this approach winning more and more support. The latest evidence that support is growing for encapsulation is a new grant by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to [...]
Managing a Diabetic Pig with Insulin
September 17th, 2012
As regular readers of this blog know, after a long preparation we have started crucial large-mammal studies, using the pig model, at Prof. Jonathan Lakey’s laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. The studies are ongoing and we are learning much. In science you build on the work of those before you. (Isaac Newton: “If [...]
Study of Islet Sheets in Diabetic Pigs: Difficult but Promising
September 5th, 2012
After a long period of laboratory and small-animal studies, at last we have begun the crucial large-animal studies of the Islet Sheet’s safety and efficacy — second in importance only to clinical trials themselves. As I have discussed previously, large-animal studies are needed to determine whether the Islet Sheet will perform well in humans with diabetes. After spending years [...]
Helmsley and JDRF Fund New Encapsulation Program at DRI
August 20th, 2012
This week saw an announcement that JDRF and the Helmsley Trust will jointly fund a $4.8 million effort to develop an islet encapsulation system at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) of the University of Miami. This is an interesting development and something of a welcome surprise. The implications for our work on the Islet Sheet [...]
See Blood Vessels Grow to the Islet Sheet
August 5th, 2012
The Islet Sheet is the perfect environment for islets of Langerhans to thrive and deliver insulin as needed to the body of a person with diabetes. Once the sheet is implanted, nutrients (sugar, amino acids, lipids) are provided by the vascular tissues surrounding the implant. Then the islets react to glucose and release insulin exactly [...]
Islet Encapsulation Is the Best Hope as Islet Transplantation Declines
June 11th, 2012
Last week surgeons, scientists and support staff from the the nation’s organ transplantation centers gathered in Boston for the annual American Transplant Congress. I attended to learn the latest news and because we were presenting two papers on the Islet Sheet. Transplantation is a big medical business, the great majority of transplant procedures being kidney [...]
Questions from an Interested Type 1 Diabetic
May 29th, 2012
Date: May 19, 2012 8:46:08 PDT To: Scott King <scott@hanumanmedical.com> Subject: A couple a questions from an interested type 1 diabetic. Greetings Mr. King, Let me first say that I am very impressed and intrigued by the work your group is doing with islet cell encapsulation techniques, very interesting stuff. My name is Curtis and I’ve been suffering [...]
Design Protocol for Large-Animal Islet Sheet Study
January 30th, 2012
My last posting marked the start of trials at the new Cedars-Sinai lab to determine the efficacy of the Islet Sheet in large mammals—a long-awaited goal. It also talked about Professor Richard Bergman’s vision for his new Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute there. The fact that Bergman, known as a leader in type 2 research, [...]
Farewell to The Solving Diabetes Project Web Site
September 27th, 2011
This is my final posting to this blog at the Solving Diabetes Project. My Islet Sheet Project blog will continue at a new URL in October. I am in the midst of consolidating our new three-way (or five-way) collaboration. We have achieved our technical goals in Islet Sheet fabrication and are ready to commence large [...]
