The University Health System recently received a $5 million donation from PBM Products to pursue new diabetes-related research.
Diane and Paul Manning, founder and CEO of PBM, which sells diabetes products, infant formula and baby food, made the donation in hopes of bringing the University to the forefront of diabetes research in the next few years.
The University will receive $1 million each year for the next five years said Cindy Barber, PBM's vice president of regulatory medical and clinical affairs. Medical School Prof. Erik Hewlett said the donation will fund research of the transplantation of islet cells, or insulin-producing cells, for diabetic patients. Islet cells help regulate the blood's level of glucose. Transplanted islet cells, however, require immune suppressants to stop the body from attacking them, Barber said. Through the donation, researchers hope to be able to soon extract these insulin-producing cells from the pancreas using cellular transplant technology, purify them and insert them into a patient's liver, where they can better function.
"We believe that islet cell transplant will be a functional cure for diabetes," Barber said. "We are very hopeful that a cure will happen in the next five years."
If the body's conditions remains stable and does not reject the purified cells, they will start to produce insulin normally and patients will no longer require insulin injections.
Additionally, the donation will further benefit the University's Diabetes Center through the creation of the Launchpad Program, which will serve to review proposals that center on cures for diabetes.\nThe University's Diabetes Center was founded in the 1970s as a National Institute of Health research center. It was funded through a grant from the Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center until 1991 when it lost that funding, according to the University's Health System Web site. Manning's gift will help keep the center, which employees about 100 workers, in top shape, Hewlett said.
The "launchpad" was designed to "look for cutting edge, novel ideas that have the potential to make a significant difference for diabetics," said Greg Fralish, program director for clinical and translational research.
The University's Diabetes Center will take proposals for pilot programs and provide researchers with seed money for projects through the Launchpad Program, Hewlett explained. Fralish added that the University is especially interested in projects that combine medical approaches with nontraditional disciplines like computer science and engineering.
The Mannings, whose children are diabetic, have donated a combined $3 million to the University's Health System in previous years, most of which has been directed toward islet cell research, Barber said.
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