Liver Could Hold Key To Type I Diabetes Treatment

by Anonymous

The six-month, $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant is for the Phase I project entitled "Converting Liver Stem Cells into Insulin Producing Cells." "While adult pancreatic stem cells remain elusive and difficult to obtain, liver stem cells have been well characterized and can be readily obtained and purified. Our preliminary experiments with rat liver stem cell lines (developed at the University of California, San Diego and at Albany Medical School) suggest their potential for trans-differentiation," says Li Yin, MD, PhD, principal investigator and a research scientist with Ixion. "Successful completion of this project will lead us to a more detailed Phase II grant that will explore in vivo functionality of liver stem cell derived islet producing cells in diabetic animal models."


"Clinical management of diabetes costs about $100 billion annually in the U.S.," says co-principal investigator Vijay Ramiya, Ph.D., director of research of Ixion's Diabetes Business Unit. "To cure Type I diabetes, both in terms of achieving insulin independence and reducing the incidence of secondary complications, it is essential to restore islet â-cell mass in the patients through transplantation."


Others involved in the study are cell culture experts Dr. Steward Sell, a professor of pathology at the Center of Immunology and Microbial Diseases at Albany Medical College, Albany, N.Y.; and Dr. Hyam L. Leffert, professor at the School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego, under whose direction the original rat liver cell lines were developed.

This is Ixion's 11th SBIR/STTR grant since 1999, totaling about $2.2 million in research funds for its cellular treatment of metabolic disease programs.


In addition to its work in diabetes, Ixion is the world's foremost company specializing in the treatment of excess oxalate conditions such as kidney stones and hyperoxaluria. Q-Med AB (QMED.ST), whose shares are listed on the Stockholm stock exchange, is a major investor in and collaborator with Ixion. For more information about Ixion's current activities, visit Ixion's web site at www.ixion-biotech.com or call 386-418-1428.


This news release discusses historical information and includes forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, such as risks associated with pre-clinical and clinical development in the biotechnology industry, determinations by regulatory and administrative governmental authorities, competitive factors, technological developments and costs of developing, producing and selling products.



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