In this week’s episode of the Xtalks Life Science Podcast, host Vera Kovacevic, Editor-in-Chief at Xtalks, spoke with Dr. Camillo Ricordi, Professor and Director of the Cell Transplant Center and Director Emeritus of the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami.
Dr. Ricordi is a leading expert in islet transplantation, cell processing and regenerative medicine. He is also the inventor of the Ricordi Chamber, a technology that helped advance pancreatic islet isolation and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
In this episode, Dr. Ricordi discusses the evolution of islet transplantation and where it fits within the broader treatment space for type 1 diabetes. He explains how the field has progressed over several decades, from early research in islet isolation and transplantation to today’s growing interest in scalable, durable diabetes cell therapies.
The conversation also explores some of the major scientific and clinical challenges that still need to be addressed before these approaches can become more widely available. Dr. Ricordi discusses why long-term immunosuppression remains an important barrier, as well as strategies being explored to reduce or potentially avoid chronic immunosuppressive therapy in the future.
In addition, Dr. Ricordi discusses the manufacturing and cell processing side of the field, including how islet isolation has evolved and what is still needed to improve throughput, consistency and patient access.
He also shares his perspective on what meaningful clinical progress could look like over the next three to five years, and why he remains optimistic about the future of diabetes cell therapy.
Tune in to learn more about the future of islet transplantation and diabetes cell therapy.
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