Core F: Regional Islet Production Core. Interactions with researchers at nearby institutions in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest would strengthen diabetes research throughout the region. The initiation of mutually beneficial interactions will be accelerated by extending the availability of highly unique, diabetes- centric facilities within the UCSF DRC to our regional colleagues. This will be initiated in the coming funding cycle by opening UCSF's world-class Islet Production Core to researchers throughout the region. By providing islets isolated from pancreases of mice and humans to researchers beyond UCSF, the Regional Islet Production Core will enable regional investigators the opportunity to translate their findings to humans. Purpose: The Regional Islet Production Core consolidates, enhances and disseminates expertise and resources in islet preparation to DRC investigators who currently study or have plans to study pancreatic islet cell biology, islet function and/or transplantation. The Core provides the following capabilities: 1. Islet Purification. Processing and preparation of human and mouse islets for use in islet biology, autoimmunity and transplantation studies. 2. Islet Functional Analysis. Real time biological and biochemical analysis of insulin production and other functional aspects of human and mouse islets to characterize islet activity under different conditions and to assess islet preparation quality for transplantation studies. Benefits to DRC Community: The UCSF DRC's Islet Production Core has been receiving requests from through the region for human islets, in particular, for some time. The Core has responded by establishing the procurement and distribution procedures that ensure access to research-grade pancreases. It also has established the equally challenging protocols for ensuring that laboratories are ready to receive the very valuable human islets, once prepared. By piloting these procedures within the UCSF DRC, the Islet Production Core is now able to extend this capability to researchers throughout the region. Five regional investigators from Stanford University, Oregon Health Sciences University, University of Washington indicate a need for human research islets for each of the eight human islet preparations we will prepare annually. These 24 aliquots of human islets will be accommodated by expanding our islet preparations from four per year (for UCSF) to 15 projects with $4,664,620 annual direct support (8, NIH-funded for $3,501,837) will benefit from this effort. Doubling the number of annual islet preparations to accommodate both regional and UCSF DRC islet needs doubles the frequency at which researchers have the opportunity to obtain islets. This enhanced access to all will accelerate diabetes research and enable previously unattainable studies using human islets. Regional investigators also will have access to islets isolated from model organisms by the Core. Thus, the Regional Core will enable both basic and translational islet-based researcher throughout the region.
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