title: International workshop: islet transplantation without borders enabling islet transplantation in Greece with international collaboration and innovative technology.
abstract: Recently, initiatives have been undertaken to establish an islet transplantation program in Athens, Greece. A major hurdle is the high cost associated with the establishment and maintenance of a clinical-grade islet manufacturing center. A collaboration was established with the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, to enable remote islet cell manufacturing with an established and validated fully operational team. However, remote islet manufacturing requires shipment of the pancreas from the procurement to the islet manufacturing site (in this case from anywhere in Greece to Geneva) and then shipment of the islets from the manufacturing site to the transplant site (from Geneva to Athens). To address challenges related to cold ischemia time of the pancreas and shipment time of islets, a collaboration was initiated with the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. An international workshop was held in Athens, December 2011, to mark the start of this collaborative project. Experts in the field presented in three main sessions: (i) islet transplantation: state-of-the-art and the "network approach"; (ii) technical aspects of clinical islet transplantation and outcomes; and (iii) islet manufacturing - from the donated pancreas to the islet product. This manuscript presents a summary of the workshop.
authors: Department of Surgery, Institute for Cellular Transplantation, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors: Klearchos K
authors: KK
authors: Papas
authors: Theodore
authors: T
authors: Karatzas
authors: Thierry
authors: T
authors: Berney
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Minor
authors: Paris
authors: P
authors: Pappas
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Pattou
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Shaw
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Toso
authors: Henk-Jan
authors: HJ
authors: Schuurman
mesh_terms: D001130:Arizona; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D013557:Switzerland; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*