MEDIA ADVISORY: 14th World Congress International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association

WHAT: The 14th World Congress of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association will convene in Monterey, Calif., sponsored by the Transplantation Society and experts from UC San Francisco. International clinical and research experts will discuss challenges and progress on strategies for freeing people with type 1 diabetes from dependence on insulin injections through replacement of pancreatic islet cells that are destroyed by the disease.   
          
Among the strategies being explored for pancreas transplantation are islet cell transplantation and the development of islet tissue from embryonic stem cells.

Researchers will discuss, among other subjects, the relative merits of islet-cell transplantation versus whole-pancreas transplantation, the potential of various strategies for shielding islets from the rest of the body to prevent their escape and to prevent autoimmune responses, the promise of new immunotherapies to stop autoimmunity and transplant rejection, and the prospects for expanding the short supply of islets by using stem cells to develop and grow insulin-secreting cells.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 24, through Friday, September 27, 2013

WHERE:

Monterey Plaza Hotel
400 Cannery Row
Monterey, CA 93940

WHO:

Many international experts will attend the meeting. Interview with these researchers, including UCSF experts, may be arranged before or during the meeting. These following experts may be interviewed before or during the meeting:

Peter Stock, MD, PhD, surgical director, kidney and pancreas transplant program; co-director Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplant Program at UCSF
Matthias Hebrok, PhD, director, UCSF Diabetes Center
Qizhi Tang, PhD, director, Transplantation Research Laboratory at UCSF
CONTACT:

Media interested in covering the event must RSVP to Jeffrey Norris at [email protected] or 415-476-8255.