Camillo Ricordi, M.D.Podcast

Transcript

Narrator:
The Diabetes Research Institute presents a series of reports on the latest progress in cure-focused research – promising discoveries aimed at restoring natural insulin production in those living with diabetes.

Reporter:
Dr. Camillo Ricordi is on a mission: to cure type 1 diabetes.  

As the Scientific Director of the Diabetes Research Institute, one way Dr. Ricordi leads this mission is by instilling a sense of urgency – to accelerate research as rapidly and safely as possible.  

In doing so, he says, he and the DRI are challenging the culture of academic science - focusing on applying research findings to patients.    

Ricordi:
“We cannot work efficiently if we don’t break the barriers of traditional academic research and science. You can double the budget, but if you don’t make a difference in the way you perform research, and how you link basic science to translational, pre-clinical and eventually clinical trials, making scientists from different levels communicating with each other, don’t let anyone sit and study just a mouse model or a basic mechanistic concept for years without verifying, as soon as possible, the potential relevance for translation to the clinical setting.”  

Reporter:
At the DRI, scientists are encouraged to bring new concepts one step closer to a cure.  

Ricordi:
“If you are working on something that is not very promising, you should abandon and switch directly in another direction.  

“And that is very important topic that we are addressing and it’s not without difficulties because we are still facing, you know, an academic environment that is changing or evolving at a much slower pace compared to places like the DRI where we have the opportunity to implement these changes faster.”    

Reporter:
Another way Ricordi pushes the DRI to accelerate progress is through collaboration – partnering with researchers around the world.  

Ricordi:
“I think it’s critically important because when you’re dealing with an epidemic like diabetes and hundreds of millions of patients affected worldwide and impact both economic and to patients to life for families, there is no reason at all and would actually be unethical or criminal to pretend to work in a vacuum while, for example, one thousand people every day die of diabetes just in the United States.

"So it’s like, to me this is a fundamental mental and philosophical point of view that everybody has to sign on when they join our institution.”  

Reporter:
The DRI trains foreign scientists … shares its technology and techniques … and is the hub of a global network of leading diabetes research centers… called the DRI Federation.  

Ricordi:
“The federation is an extension of this philosophy of collaboration. Now you can connect laboratory, microscopes, equipment and areas so that project teams from different countries can work together on the same project.”  

Reporter:
Ricordi says the DRI’s most important partner is the DRI Foundation – the Institute’s major source of funding.   The Foundation – driven by families with members whose loved ones are suffering from diabetes -- allows DRI scientists to pursue the most promising new ideas.  

Ricordi:
“None of this could be done without the support of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation so this is something that all the scientists here at the DRI as well as those with whom we collaborate worldwide are deeply aware.”  

Reporter:
Under Ricordi’s leadership. the DRI has undertaken groundbreaking clinical trials – such as, taking insulin-producing cells from donor pancreases, and transplanting them into patients with  diabetes.  

Now, as those trials continue, the Institute is building upon these achievements to take science to a higher level … to form a new roadmap in cure-focused diabetes research … to restore natural insulin production in those living with this disease.   

Ricordi:
“Islet transplantation is just one of the aspects that we are tackling now. It is still a very central and important role to create a platform technology that will be then transferred to other emerging technologies.”  

Reporter:
Technologies such as tissue engineering -- trying to protect transplanted islet cells from immune attack by placing them inside devices.  

Also: using nanotechnology to encase them in ultra-thin protective layers.  

Another approach: Local Drug Delivery. Delivering anti-rejection drugs only where islets are placed -- and not throughout the entire body.  

Ricordi:
“I think some of the most interesting and exciting projects are in the area of local immune suppression, like in targeting only a small area of your body where you put the islets, to modulate immune response and block it without any side effect to the rest of the body.”  

Reporter:
The DRI is focusing on stem cell research with embryonic, amniotic, and cord blood cells. The objective is to increase the supply of  insulin-producing cells by guiding stem cells to develop in the right direction.  

Researchers are studying xenotransplantation -- using pig cells as an alternative source of insulin producing cells.  

Scientists are working on regeneration -- prompting the patient’s own body to regenerate islet cells.  

And, there are promising developments in the field of immunobiology -- enabling a patient to accept transplanted cells without the need for lifelong anti-rejection drugs – what researchers call “tolerance.”  

Research is also focused on preventing the recurrence of an autoimmune attack, which caused diabetes in the first place.  

With all of these exciting ideas come challenges, Ricordi says. Like growing the institute to meet this potential. More people, space, and resources. All the while, staying focused, and working smart.  

Ricordi:
“Increasing the efficiency and the communication, the collaboration and avoiding duplication, and being able to have the courage to stop early projects that are not as promising and shift the project into a new project or a new area.”

Reporter:
Ricordi says this is also an exciting time to be at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where the DRI is based.  

The Medical School has been aggressively recruiting top scientific talent…and forming new institutes – for transplantation and stem cells, for instance -- that will complement the DRI’s mission.  

Ricordi:
“So that the entire university research environment is growing so fast it will be a unique opportunity, also for diabetes research to capitalize on this new potential collaborations also within the university.”     

Narrator:
This has been a production of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation.

For more information, or to show your support for the Diabetes Research Institute, call 1-800-321-3437.

You also may donate online at diabetesresearch.org.