Posted by Sandy D. on June 27, 1998 at 20:18:21:
In Reply to: IDDM's--Orphans posted by Therese B. on June 27, 1998 at 01:00:02:
Therese,
I think you're absolutely right about the NIDDK, specifically Gorden, not wanting to bring up the subject of islet transplantation. It seems insane to me that he thinks we should engineer cells to perform the functions that porcine islet cells already perform flawlessly - glucose sensing and insulin delivery. Worse, he seems to propose engineering cells to sense glucose and somehow trigger an exogenous insulin delivery system to supply insulin. It isn't simply a disgraceful misappropriation of money, it's a blatant refusal to give this technology a chance. Sure, the xeno issues are controversial, but many things are. What the hell is going on here?