'Chicago Project' working toward a cure

Came across an interesting group from the University of Illinois that is working as "The Chicago Project" to bring top scientists from around the world together on the idea of speeding up the reliability of islet cell transplantation.

This idea has been around for a while, but there have been a number of challenges:

• sufficient supplies
• long-term anti-rejection therapy
• long-term study results

Here's the basic concept: Islet cells inside the pancreas create insulin, which is a hormone essential to the absorption of glucose from the blood stream into the body's cells where it can be used to energy. In diabetes, islet cells are either destroyed altogether or impaired such that they can't effectively produce the insulin the patient needs. In islet cell transplantation, you inject new, functioning islet cells into the patient.  In early tests, the transplanted cells took and started making insulin, but there were complications.

The Chicago Project has linked many top researchers in the world to collaborate on solving the myriad complications with islet cell transplantation in the drive to make this a functional cure for diabetes.

We've added a Chicago Project link in the right-hand column.  We'll check back with them from time to time and keep you posted.