nPOD-Europe

What is nPOD-E?

The main goals of the nPOD-E project are to expand organ collection (and distribution) by creating a network for organ recovery at qualified sites in European countries, to obtain immediate access to highly valuable stored samples, to provide these resources nPOD investigators and to provide nPOD European investigators with fresh tissue. nPOD will work closely with collaboration and individually affiliated sites in Europe to achieve these goals.

Why is nPOD-E important?

Whereas many type 1 diabetes (T1D) research studies focus on one avenue of study to determine the cause of T1D, nPOD uses a multi-disciplinary approach and supports over 70 investigators studying multiple pathways to the disease.

nPOD-E serves a very important role as the 'bridge' between the United States and Europe by establishing an exchange of tissue and data between nPOD and its affiliate sites in Europe.

How does nPOD-E work?

nPOD works closely with identified collaboration or individual sites in four different countries to move ever closer to the nPOD's goal of finding a cure for type 1 diabetes.

Collaboration sites are those nPOD works together with to increase standardization accross the field of T1D research and to obtain access to already-established biorepositories of T1D tissue:

1. Finland: nPOD-E will be collaborating with Dr. Heikki Hyöty, from the University of Tampere and the PEVNET/EuroPOD project, by developing coordinated activities (specimen distribution, data, data management, SOP, other).
2. Sweden: Collaborating with Dr. Gun Frisk, at Uppsala University, to obtain retrospective and prospective tissue samples, specifically islets from autoantibody positive donors.

Individual sites are those established by nPOD, which will screen for autoantibodies, recover tissue from AAb+ and T1D donors, store specimen and specimen data, and distribute tissue to nPOD investigators, all utilizing the nPOD operational model:

1. Spain: nPOD-E will be collaborating with Dr. Eduard Montanya, University of Barcelona, on a pilot project. This pilot project will screen and recover AAb+ and T1D donors using nPOD SOP for its screening, recovery, case processing and distribution methods.
2. Italy: nPOD-E will be collaborating with Francesco Dotta, from University of Siena, on a pilot project.  This pilot project will, similar to nPOD, screen and recover AAb+ and T1D donors from multiple sites and use all of nPOD’s SOP for its screening, recovery, case processing and distribution methods.

Please contact Carmen Retrum, nPOD Coordinator of Special Projects, for further information.