Maybe 2010 Will Be A Great Year After All? I'm Hope'n & Pray'n Anyway.

Pig research gives hope for diabetes cure:

BLACKSBURG

A Blacksburg medical company says it is a step closer to finding a potential cure for one form of diabetes, tapping pigs as a source of healthy, insulin-oozing cells that might someday be transplanted into ailing humans. Revivicor Inc. and researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recently reported that by injecting sickened laboratory monkeys with live, pig pancreatic cells, they reversed the monkeys' Type I diabetes.

Tests on diabetic people could begin in two years and, if they are successful, it could usher in one of the first approved human medical treatments derived from living animal cells. With a global epidemic of diabetes taking shape, medical researchers are looking for answers for people who can't make or effectively use insulin to convert food to energy. The disease, which millions of Americans try to manage with medication, is considered incurable. But Revivicor sees a day when regenerative medicine specialists will replace failing human body parts with healthy animal versions grown in virtually unlimited supplies and genetically altered for compatibility. The monkey tests showed it can work in a laboratory, officials said.

"We now have survival and a complete cure of diabetes for one year in a monkey," said David Ayares, Revivicor's CEO.

Revivicor, a 21-employee, private company in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, allowed University of Pittsburgh officials to announce the monkey results because the transplantations occurred there. But the company's role is key and its contribution illustrates the sort of medical innovation coming out of the high-tech business community rooted in Southwest Virginia. Ayares said the results achieved by the Revivicor-UPMC team are the best in the world in that one experimental monkey maintained a normal blood glucose level without injected insulin or special diet for slightly more than one year - versus six months in another company's experiment. The results are reported in the December issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

The Roanoke Times
© January 2, 2010

By Jeff Sturgeon.

Thanx Fer Da Hope Revicor Inc., Virgina Tech And The University of Pittsburgh.

And Thanx Fer Noth'n PETA!