REGENERATIVE MEDICINE & DIABETES AT UHN: A Chair is associated with the highest honour in academic life and is important for UHN to attract and retain the best scientific minds from around the world.

The Diabetes Chair in Stem Cell Research will support an outstanding investigator focused on applying state-of-the art stem cell biology and regenerative medicine approaches.  Labs around the world are already generating insulin producing cells.  The next challenge is to find a viable way to transplant these cells into a diabetes sufferer.  There are many potential routes to this end, and the funds raised through the Hats Off to Harry event will permit the McEwen Centre and UHN to recruit a research star of the future who will be focused on this project.

To date, other institutions around the world have focused on the transplantation of islet cells (our own natural insulin producing cells) from the pancreas of an organ donor to the pancreas of a living recipient.  Although this track of research has shown promise, the cells tend to cease producing insulin after a period of about 5-years and the recipient must return to daily insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar.

Through recent (in the last 2 years) advances in stem cell research, it is now possible to create insulin producing cells, from a patient’s own cells (from skin or hair), thus avoiding issues of rejection in transplanting these cells into the patent’s pancreas.  This method is called iPS: induced pluripotent stem cell.  Although this method is also not yet perfected, it is a research track that UHN and the McEwen Centre believe has great promise.