Posted by Alan F. Bachrach, M.D. on December 03, 1997 at 23:05:54:
In Reply to: Transplant research--What's the current state? posted by Maurice Sonnenwirth on December 03, 1997 at 19:58:28:
Some of this information can be found by looking back through The Islet Foundation archives. Some can be found by going to the Children With Diabetes Website where the work of several companies has been summarized. In my opinion it would be most helpful to have an active researcher (or several researchers) comment on the prospects for success of the various approaches. Unfortunately those who are associated with private companies have to both protect trade secrets and not cause problems with regard to maintaining the value of investments in their companies. Some are not in a "political position" to make comments since their comments could be contstrued as an endorsement of one company over another.
I am afraid Dr. Ricordi (who has previously participated on this forum), whose institution stands ready to help anyone with a possibly viable technique, is in this delicate position. I am not sure that the academicians really know what is going on behind closed doors in the research labs of the private companies. Thus even though many encouraging summaries are available (including on this website) it is very difficult to get an unbiased and complete picture of what is really going on.