The IIDP currently supplies over 100 investigators with human islets for their research programs. The IIDP Coordinating Center serves as an organizing intermediary between investigators and the islet isolation centers that procure and prepare islets for research purposes. To receive research islets through the IIDP, investigators must have ongoing, peer reviewed grant funding or approval from an I
IDP-empaneled scientific review committee. Electronic application materials and other program information are made available through online IIDP web services. When a donor pancreas is recovered and the processed islets are directed for research purposes, an electronic system matches the characteristics of islets being offered with the research requirements specified by investigators, and notifies the researcher of islet availability. Unlike rodent islets, human islet preparation requires specialized expertise and costly processes available in very few laboratories, mandating a coordinated approach to human islet distribution. Since 2002, City of Hope has served the diabetes research community by coordinating, enhancing, monitoring, and documenting distribution of human islets as a critical resource to support fundamental basic and translational diabetes research. Over the past 15 years COH has established an excellent track record of working collaboratively with 19 Integrated Islet Distribution Program (IIDP) Islet Isolation Centers and over 500 investigators, placing over 232 million islets and supporting 316 studies, yielding 506 peer-review publications. The program is supported by the Special Statutory Funding Program for Type 1 Diabetes Research and is administered by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
- National Institutes of Health
