Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded a $10 million grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDF) to search for a cure for type 1 diabetes through gene therapy.
"The JDF Center brings together world-renowned experts in the areas of diabetes, gene therapy, immunology, and transplantation, with a common goal of finding a cure for diabetes through islet cell transplantation and genetic engineering," Children's Hospital and JDF said in a statement.
The center will focus on developing new gene therapy techniques to increase the supply of islet cells available for transplantation and to protect transplanted islet cells from attacks by the immune system. Seven research projects will be undertaken. Six of the projects will use ex vivo gene therapy, in which cells will be taken from a living animal, treated with genetic material, and returned to the animal. In the seventh project, which will study the prevention of diabetic nerve damage, gene therapy will be used in vivo-the genetic material will be introduced directly into the animals.
Massimo Trucco, MD, chief of the division of immunogenetics at Children's Hospital and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is director of the new center. Codirectors are transplantation pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD, a professor of surgery at the school of medicine; and Joseph C. Glorioso III, PhD, chairman of the department of molecular genetics and biochemistry at the school of medicine.
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View a statement from JDF at www.jdf.org/research/news051100.html.
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