Newswise — BOSTON – (November 20, 2014) - Rohit Kulkarni, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator in the Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, coauthored a paper that was published today in Diabetes, which voiced concerns about the increasing difficulty of access to high quality islet cells for diabetes research. Andrew Stewart, M.D., Director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, served as the other lead author.
“Obtaining human islets for research in diabetes is an important component that will allow investigators to gain critical insights into how insulin-producing cells work,” said Dr. Kulkarni. “These experiments are of high significance in the overall goal of developing therapeutic approaches to successfully replace and/or regenerate insulin-producing cells in all forms of human diabetes.”
Diabetes cases across the world continue to increase, which creates the need for more research into causes of and treatment for the disease. Dr. Kulkarni and Dr. Stewart are leading the calls for a number changes that mostly relate to improving the productivity of centers that isolate and distribute islets. They and a number of colleagues discussed the issues and possible solutions at a keystone meeting in April 2014; the points of discussion were captured in the Diabetes whitepaper, which Dr. Kulkarni and Dr. Stewart also submitted to the NIH.
In 2010 only 35 labs were working with human islets. Now, in 2014, there are 104 labs working with islets and this number continues to grow, in part, due to a new initiative by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) called the Human Islet Research Network, or HIRN. With HIRN, the NIH hopes to fund new labs, in addition to the existing one undertaking studies involving human islets.
One solution Dr. Kulkarni and Dr. Stewart presented involved increasing funding for the Integrated Islet Distribution Program to isolate and distribute more islets.
“From our own calculations and also from talking to the IIDP and other colleagues we think that getting about $2 to $2.5 million more per year [to the IIDP] would allow a doubling of these islets.” said Dr. Kulkarni. “Another concern to be addressed is the 4-fold increase in the cost of human islets that is currently to be borne by the Investigators.”
Dr. Kulkarni and the other signatories on the whitepaper recognize that the NIH shouldn’t shoulder the entire burden, so they recommend researchers come up with creative ways to use fewer islets in experiments, while still achieving usable results.
They also suggest that labs contribute ideas for quality standardization procedures to ensure each lab ends up with the maximum number of usable islets.
“The NIDDK has done a tremendous job in supporting the IIDP since its inception and we hope that it will find a long-term solution to continue supporting this organization. We also hope this whitepaper will encourage creative approaches to lessen the burden on Research Investigators to shoulder the increasing costs of human islets when they are already impacted by cuts in research funding,” said Dr. Kulkarni.
Several other signatories of the white paper who have agreed to speak to the media concerning the islet cell shortage include: Andrew Stewart, M.D., Director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at of Mount Sinai Hospital, Ernesto-Bernal Mizrachi, M.D., of University of Michigan, and Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Tulane Diabetes Research Program at Tulane University Health SciencesCenter.
About Joslin Diabetes Center
Joslin Diabetes Center, based in Boston, Massachusetts, undertakes diabetes research, clinical care, education and health and wellness programs on a global scale. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real progress in preventing and curing diabetes. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and is recognized worldwide for driving innovative solutions in diabetes prevention, research, education, and care.
Our mission is to prevent, treat and cure diabetes. Our vision is a world free of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit www.joslin.org.
About Joslin Research
Joslin Research comprises the most comprehensive and productive effort in diabetes research under one roof anywhere in the world. With 30‐plus faculty‐level investigators, Joslin researchers focus on unraveling the biological, biochemical and genetic processes that underlie the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and related complications.
Joslin research is highly innovative and imaginative, employing the newest tools in genetics, genomics and proteomics to identify abnormalities that may play a role in the development of diabetes and its complications. Joslin Clinic patients, and others with diabetes, have the option of participating in clinical trials at Joslin to help translate basic research into treatment innovations.
Joslin has one of the largest diabetes training programs in the world, educating 150 M.D. and Ph.D. researchers each year, many of whom go on to head diabetes initiatives at leading institutions all over the globe. For more information, visit www.joslinresearch.org.
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