Roy Y. Calne, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Alemtuzumab as an induction agent has now been studied in the clinic for more than 3000 patients with renal allografts and the overall results have been very satisfactory when the basic protocol described in the original “prope tolerance” paper from Cambridge had been followed. These data will be summarised with a short discussion of minimising immunosuppression. (Calne RY et al, Lancet 351: 1701-2, 1998.)

There have been many experimental studies with stem cell and gene therapy directed towards the treatment of diabetes. Our own collaborative work with Professor Ghoneim‚s group from Masoura has encouraging data on the culture and differentiation of human bone marrow to produce surrogate beta cells which have cured diabetic skid mice. Another line of therapy is the use of the human insulin gene in a Lentiviral vector for transfection of liver and mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells ex vivo and in vivo. Developments using a combination of both stem cell and gene therapy will be discussed.