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The average on the papers was actually low 70s. He asked if we'd all put in equal effort, and if any of the three group members had a biology background, because he felt the paper had a really deep understanding of biology - nearly at a grad level! And that it would be nice if we would consider graduate studies. All three of us are going to try for a masters of some sort, actually.

Anyways I'm really happy because the paper, while interesting, wasn't our best effort. It included gems such as "severe hypoglycemia may potentially of unconsciousness when diabetes can't be controlled by insulin injections." Alas.

If you're interested in islet cell transplantation as a treatment for Type I diabetes key findings of the paper are summarized here:

• Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease.


• Islet cell transplantation is the transplantation of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It was developed in Edmonton, Canada, as a cure for Type I diabetes because 1) independence from insulin injections is desirable, and 2) it is safer and less complex than a whole pancreas transplant.


• However the viability of islet cell transplantation is limited by lack of donors, poor transplant longevity, and a future of a lifelong regime of immunosuppressants. None of these have any true solutions yet.


• The best way to improve the islet cell transplantation technique would be to eliminate immunosuppressant therapy, which is way more risky and inconvenient than insulin injections. Best way to this is probably use a bone marrow transplant from the islet cell donor.


• Islet cell longevity can be improved by engineering a transplant site with a hormone-infused biocompatible polymer, since existing transplant sites on the human body are not currently compatible.


• This would also reduce the number of donors required, allowing the technique to be carried out with one live donor, and also rendering a bone marrow transplant viable in preventing transplant rejection without immunosuppressants.