One of the treatments is a pancreatectomy or surgical removal of the pancreas. "But the surgery creates problems, too," Wang said. "It means all of the patient's islet cells also are removed, taking away the patient's insulin and making the patient diabetic, which creates other lifelong complications."

Wang is putting to good use her research expertise in islet cell transplantation, gained at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. That's where she worked as instructor and assistant professor for almost 10 years before coming to MUSC, where she serves as co-scientific director of the Center for Cellular Therapy. The clean cell facility is the second largest autologous islet transplantation center in the United States.


Islet cell transplantation is a technique in which the pancreas gland is taken to a laboratory after removal while the cells are still alive. The gland is then gently digested to break it into different cell types. The islet cells are separated and injected back into the patient to go the liver in the hope that they will stay in the liver and continue to secrete insulin.

"In the best outcomes, the patient would not be diabetic at all," Wang said. The number of cells that survive determines the severity of a patient's diabetes after removal of the pancreas. This surgery is done at only a small number of specialty centers because of the detail and expertise involved.

According to Wang, the value of working in islet cell transplantation research at MUSC is the expertise of the clinicians. MUSC is a designated National Pancreas Foundation center, focusing on the multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of pancreatitis, including access to expert surgeons in the field of chronic pancreatitis.

"This study is half basic science and half clinical. At MUSC, we have the some of the best pancreatic surgeons in the country, and if we have questions in the research environment, we can work directly with the surgeons to find solutions," said Wang.

"We are excited to be at the cutting edge of translating basic science research into clinical outcomes that will change the way we treat not only patients who suffer from chronic pancreatitis but eventually patients with type 1 diabetes," Wang said. "Just imagine a day when people with type 1 diabetes no longer need to take their insulin. That's the future. That's the direction we are going."

Co-investigators for this study from the Department of Surgery include Katherine Morgan, M.D., chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal and Laparoscopic Surgery and David B. Adams, M.D., professor of Surgery in the Division of Gastrointestinal and Laparoscopic Surgery.

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