Specific programme: Industrial Leadership: NMBP
UPV/EHU Partner Status: Third Party with CIBER-BBN
UPV/EHU PI: Jose Luis Pedraz Muñoz
Project start: 29/02/2016
Project end:   28/02/2020

Brief description: DRIVE aims to improve pancreatic islet transplant therapy for diabetes mellitus, a chronic disease characterised by high blood sugar due to a shortage of insulin. Transplant of insulin-producing pancreatic islets restores tight natural control of blood sugar, eliminating the need for multiple daily injections of insulin, that ultimately affect patient's quality of life. Thanks to the combined use of an injectable gel ("β-Gel") acting as a protective matrix for the islets and of an innovative drug delivery system ("β-Shell") for tuneable and localised release of immunosuppressive/anti-inflammatory drugs, DRIVE aims to dramatically improve the survival and engraftment rate of transplanted islets, thereby widening the application of islet transplant therapy to more insulin-dependent diabetes patients (T1D and T2D). DRIVE will also develop a minimally invasive injection catheter ("β-Cath") and perform a series of pre-clinical studies on the integrated β-Gel/β-Shell/β-Cath system to assess its efficacy in vivo.