Summary of the Keystone Islet Workshop (April 2014): The Increasing Demand for Human Islet Availability in Diabetes Research

Serving as a “call to action,” the Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology: Emerging Concepts and Targets in Islet Biology (Keystone Islet Workshop) held in April 2014 provided a much-needed forum on islet biology and the increasing pressure of the supply and demand relationship of human islets for research. The result of the workshop was a white paper that has been shared with the leadership of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), JDRF, and the American Diabetes Association (available from http://www.joslin.org/news/White-Paper-on-Human-Islet-Availability-for-Diabetes-Research.html). A brief summary is provided here. Pressure for research on the “pipeline” of human islets has become increasingly acute for several reasons. While the need is urgent, obtaining human islets for research from living or cadaveric donors is difficult. This challenge contrasts with other diabetes-relevant tissues (e.g., adipose, skeletal muscle, and even liver) that are more easily obtained by percutaneous …