Minnesota’s Diabetes Niche
Posted on July 7th, 2009 – 11:06 AMBy Thomas Lee
In a bit of a coup for Minnesota, Dr. David Kendall was recently named chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association, where he will oversee research grants, clinical guidelines, and certification programs. He starts September.
Kendall is currently medical director and chief of clinical services at Park Nicollet’s International Center for Diabetes.
Minnesota is home to some promising research into treating and even curing diabetes. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and at the University of Minnesota are close to conducting the first clinical trials to transplant living pig tissue into humans. The tissue could create insulin producing cells for patients.
The university was the first to perform an islet cell transplant in 1974. Since 2000, the university has transplanted islet cells into 26 Type 1 diabetes patients. Five
years later, about half of them no longer need insulin injections.
Exsulin Corp. of Burnsville is developing a technology that focuses on certain proteins that can instruct progenitor cells — basic pancreatic cells that exhibit stem-cell-like
behavior — to form insulin-producing islet cells. The company is well into clinical trials and could gain FDA approval in 3 to 5 years.
And last year, Best Buy Co. Inc. founder Richard Schulze announced a $40 million gift to the U to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Let’s hope Minnesota can make the most of these opportunities.
