HUMC will be the first facility to try the procedure on humans, as so far the tests have been limited to monkeys. Dr. Ricordi’s technique includes loading islets — the cells that make insulin and are destroyed by Type 1 diabetes — on a disc and implanting them in the abdomen. In the past, islets have been transplanted in the liver with little success.
Because of promising results with the monkeys, Michael Shapiro, MD, HUMC’s chief of organ transplantation and leader of the diabetes partnership, hopes to have four patients undergo the procedure in early 2012.
Read the Record report on Hackensack University Medical Center’s diabetes research.
Read more coverage on Hackensack University Medical Center:
– Hackensack University Medical Center Opens Heart and Vascular Hospital
– New Jersey’s Valley, Englewood Hospitals Fight Reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital
