The Whittier’s Islet Cell Research Laboratory

The limited availability of insulin-producing islet cells remains a major hurdle to offering a widespread cure for type 1 diabetes, namely islet cell transplantation. While only 3,000 donated pancreases are made available for research and cell transplantations each year, one million Americans are candidates for the procedure.

Director Alberto Hayek, M.D. is credited as the first investigator to successfully replicate insulin-producing islet cells outside the human body - considered one of the most promising advances in diabetes research in a generation. The Whittier’s Islet Cell Research laboratory is in the process of scaling up a method to replicate islets to make it applicable to human islet transplantation.

Dr. Hayek and his colleagues’ approach using fibrin gels involves minimal islet architecture disruption, preservation of function, and enhanced viability. If successful, Dr. Hayek projects the doubling or tripling of islet cell mass should increase the number of patients in clinical trials and enhance the viability of islet transplant programs.

Developing insulin-producing (beta) cells (red markers)