President & Director
Islet Sciences (www.isletsciences.com) is developing Islet Sciences-P™ — a vialed suspension of microencapsulated porcine islets for injection into the abdominal cavity. Islet Sciences-P will be a ready-to-use formulation that will require very little preparation by the transplant surgeon. IS-P is designed to improve microencapsulated islet cell viability and functionality at several points in the preparation of this suspension. We believe our cell handling techniques substantially increase the longevity and functionality of the encapsulated islet cells.Current treatments for Insulin Dependent Diabetes are palliative and require constant glucose monitoring and repeated daily insulin injections. In contrast, the transplantation of insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells could free patients of monitoring and injections altogether.A team at the University of Alberta managed to successfully treat diabetes in dozens of patients by transplanting them with human pancreatic islet cells. (New England Journal of Medicine, 343(4): 230-8, 2000) Furthermore, 85% of the original patients remained insulin-free for one year or more following the transplant.The effectiveness of islet transplantation has been demonstrated in principle by the Edmonton studies, however it faces two major obstacles which prevent it from helping all Insulin Dependent diabetics, namely 1) the need for continuous immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted human islet cells and 2) the lack of human donor tissue.Islet Sciences is dedicated to overcoming these obstacles by commercializing porcine islets, which are in abundant supply, and encapsulating them to avoid an immune rejection and the need for toxic immunosuppression therapy.
