City of Hope Named Islet Cell Resource Coordinating Center for National Institutes of Health Diabetes Project

City of Hope
Tuesday, 30 July 2002

$5 Million Award Expands Medical Center's Role in Islet Cell Transplantation

A $5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) has expanded City of Hope National Medical Center's role in the emerging field of islet cell transplantation for Type I diabetes.

Last year, City of Hope was designated as one of ten, federally-funded Islet Cell Resource (ICR) centers responsible for processing and distributing islet cells to transplant programs around the country. This additional grant enables City of Hope to function as the Administrative and Bioinformatics Coordinating Center (ABCC) for the network of ICR centers nationwide.

In its new role as the ABCC, City of Hope will:

• develop detailed standard operating procedures in collaboration with the ICR program National Steering Committee and all ten ICR centers;
• outline the requirements for using ICR-generated islets including: testing procedures, human subjects protection, quality control and regulatory issues, data collection protocols, Data and Safety Monitoring Board plans, and requests for ICR resources;
• coordinate ICR activities such as islet cell distribution, complex assays and unique technologies best housed in a central core resource;
• facilitate clinical trial operations and correlate the resulting data;
• collaborate with the bioinformatics cores to develop and maintain the network's information repository under strict information management standards;
• conduct statistical analyses to meet ICR goals, including optimization of isolation procedures to obtain high yields of functional islets, development of isolation procedures for maximal islet cell function upon transplantation, and analysis of methods for islet cell production and correlation with post-transplant cell function.

"We are honored to be working so closely with the NIH, the NCRR and the other ICR centers to help coordinate this project," said Joyce C. Niland, Ph.D., chair of Information Sciences at City of Hope and principal investigator on the new grant. "Islet cell transplantation is the most promising development in diabetes research at the present time, and by serving as the ABCC we will play a central role in its development."

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the nation. More than one million Americans have Type I diabetes, and approximately 1 of every 7 dollars spent on health care is attributable to diabetes or diabetes-related complications. Type I diabetes can occur at any age, but it most commonly develops in children between the ages of 5 and 15. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own islet cells (cells in the pancreas that produce insulin), preventing the body from properly metabolizing glucose.

Islet cell transplantation involves isolating islet cells by removing them from the pancreas of a donor, then injecting them into the liver of a diabetic patient. Recent studies have shown that the newly injected islets can recognize the patient's need for insulin and produce it accordingly, potentially eliminating the need for daily insulin injections.

"The cost of diabetes to the individual and society is extremely high," said Fouad Kandeel, M.D., Ph.D., director of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at City of Hope. "Islet cell transplantation is going to open an entirely new era in the treatment of Type I diabetes."

In Southern California, City of Hope has also partnered with leading academic medical centers to create an islet cell transplantation consortium. The consortium includes University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California, University of California Irvine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Saint Vincent Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Isolation and purification of islet cells for the consortium will be conducted at City of Hope's unique Center for Biomedicine and Genetics (CGB), the nation's largest academic-based facility capable of producing experimental biological therapeutics for use in phase I and II clinical trials. The CBG will also process islets for other institutions in the United States.

In addition to City of Hope, ICR centers are located at University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), University of Miami (FL), Washington University (St. Louis, MO), University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), University of Colorado Health Science Center (Denver), Columbia University (NY), College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York, NY), University of Tennessee, (Memphis), Puget Sound Blood Center (Seattle, WA) and Joslin Diabetes Center (Boston, MA).

NCRR is the nation's leading Federal sponsor of resources that enable advances in many areas of biomedical research. NCRR support provides the scientific research community with access to a diverse array of biomedical research technologies, instrumentation, specialized basic and clinical research facilities, animal models (mammalian and nonmammalian), genetic stocks, and such biomaterials as cell lines, tissues, and organs.

For more information, or to contact City of Hope, see their website at: www.cityofhope.org