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NEW U.VA. DIABETES RESEARCH CENTER TO BE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN STATE

A newly established research center at the University of Virginia may soon offer hope for the 300,000 Virginians who suffer from the debilitating complications of Type 1 diabetes. The Center for Cellular Transplantation, which is funded in part by a $500,000 gift from Paul and Diane Manning of Keswick, Va., will include the first pancreatic islet cell isolation facility in Virginia. By using islet cell transplantation, this state-of-the-art facility will make insulin-producing cells to test new therapies that may reverse or prevent Type 1 diabetes from developing.

Currently, we are partnering with an established islet cell isolation facility to jump-start the program, said Dr. Jerry Nadler, head of the U.Va. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. We hope to perform, together with our Department of Surgery, our first islet transplant by the end of the year. The Mannings' gift will allow us to make this vital leap forward, providing us with the resources to create our own transplantation program and eventually continue on to clinical trials.

U.Va. is about a year away from completing the facilities necessary for producing the tissue cultures involved in islet transplantation. The center will be directed by Dr. Ken Brayman, a prominent transplant surgeon and former director of islet transplantation program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Type 1 diabetes is the form that generally strikes children and young adults. The disease can lead to complications such as blindness, kidney failure and heart disease. With Type 1 diabetes, islet cells are completely destroyed by the immune system, necessitating daily injections of insulin for survival. Islet cell transplantation offers the potential to completely reverse Type 1 diabetes and allow patients to have normal blood sugar without insulin injections.

Nadler's team of researchers is experimenting with new ways to allow islet cells to maintain the secretion of insulin while protecting the cells from attack by the body's immune system. They have discovered medications that may provide a safer way to protect the insulin-producing cells from being destroyed by substances called cytokines.

We're so fortunate to have a center of this scope at U.Va., said Paul Manning, whose PBM Products, Inc. manufactures generic baby formula sold nationwide. We hope that the Center for Cellular Transplantation's research program will soon provide lasting benefits to all Virginians whose lives are touched by diabetes.

July 25, 2002