Programme Manager DRIVE - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
DRIVE aims to improve pancreatic islet transplant therapy for diabetes mellitus, a chronic disease characterised by high blood sugar due to a shortage of insulin. Transplant of insulin-producing pancreatic islets purified from donor pancreases can restore tight natural control of blood sugar and eliminate the need for multiple daily injections of insulin, thereby improving patient’s quality of life.
However, despite its proven effectiveness among current treatments for type 1 diabetes, this therapy suffers from poor survival and engraftment of transplanted islets and risks associated with the lifelong immune suppression medication that islet transplant recipients must take.
These factors limit the use of this therapy to a small percentage of “brittle” type 1 diabetes patients for whom daily insulin injections are not sufficient to control their diabetes.
The DRIVE project aims to develop technologies to dramatically improve the survival and engraftment rate of transplanted islets and forego the need for lifelong immune suppression. DRIVE’s vision is to widen the application of islet transplant therapy to more insulin-dependent diabetes patients (T1D and T2D).
DRIVE is a 4-year project to be carried out by 14 European partners, coordinated by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
However, despite its proven effectiveness among current treatments for type 1 diabetes, this therapy suffers from poor survival and engraftment of transplanted islets and risks associated with the lifelong immune suppression medication that islet transplant recipients must take.
These factors limit the use of this therapy to a small percentage of “brittle” type 1 diabetes patients for whom daily insulin injections are not sufficient to control their diabetes.
The DRIVE project aims to develop technologies to dramatically improve the survival and engraftment rate of transplanted islets and forego the need for lifelong immune suppression. DRIVE’s vision is to widen the application of islet transplant therapy to more insulin-dependent diabetes patients (T1D and T2D).
DRIVE is a 4-year project to be carried out by 14 European partners, coordinated by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
The DRIVE project is
over half way through, and approaching a critical stage of development for the
diabetes reversing implant technologies. As such, it was a good time to get
expert advice from leaders in the fields of cell therapy, devices, trials,
regulation and finance to maximise the outputs from future project work.
DRIVE's Expert Advisory Board were invited to RCSI Dublin, where after hearing
a review of the project achievements and future work plans, they provided
feedback and recommendations to the DRIVE General Assembly. The External
Advisory Board was composed of Prof Paul de Vos (Professor of
Immunoendocrinology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Groningen), Dr
Jeffrey Millman (Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering,
School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis), Dr Albert Hwa
(Operations Director at Joslin Diabetes Center and Lecturer, Harvard Medical
School), Dr Georgina Murphy (Investment Associate, Atlantic Bridge Capital) and
Dr Niamh Curran (Pharmaceutical Assessor, Health Products Regulatory Authority).
