A private foundation has donated nearly $ 20 million to Harvard Medical School to fund research they hope will lead to a cure for juvenile diabetes . The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDF) and Harvard announced today the creation of a center dedicated to the search for an effective way to replace the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas that the body's own immune system destroys the debilitating disease that affects an estimated 700,000 people in the United States.
researchers have had some success in transplantation of islet cells, but beneficiaries require high doses of immune suppression. This does not work in children, says Harvard immunologist Laurie Glimcher, who helped spark the idea for the center and is a managing partner. JDF Center for Islet Cell Transplantation fund 32 researchers to focus on four main objectives: Reverse the overactive immune response that kills the islet cells; find new sources for transplants of islet cells, such as pigs or genetically modified cells; persuade the body to accept the transplanted cells without immunosuppressive drugs that often trigger side effects worse than the disease; and overcome the technical difficulties of transplantation.
The new center is "certainly a good initiative," says Camillo Ricordi, scientific director of the Research Institute of Diabetes at the University of Miami in Florida. "It will bring more investigators to our area," he said. Glimcher said the center should have tests on animal transplants without immunosuppression in current year, with the hope for human trials in 3 years.
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