A Message From Our Chairman

Welcome to the Web site of the Spring Point Project. The main purpose of this site is to update you on a major initiative currently underway to complete the development of a widely available, affordable, and far superior treatment for type 1 diabetes and potentially type 2 diabetes as well.

I have been involved with many individuals and organizations tirelessly working toward a day when this disease is conquered. I have heard the hopes, the claims and at times even the hype. But let me assure you I believe this project is fundamentally different. Its impact will be profound and the goal can be accomplished in a few years. We are close to a cure for diabetes!

Spring Point Project has a very narrow focus: to provide a new and virtually unlimited supply of insulin-producing islet cells from pigs! Islets from pigs that can be used for the transplantation into humans brother or sister, family member or close friend and change their lives forever.

The Project is partnering with the University of Minnesota Schulze Diabetes Institute guided by Dr. Bernhard Hering, an internationally recognized leader in experimental and clinical islet cell transplantation. In 2006 his team made a breakthrough that was thought to be impossible, and it opened the door to unprecedented opportunities. His team showed that pig islets can cure diabetes in monkeys one step from humans. Since that time, remarkable progress has been made in preparation for the historic day when we are able to try these transplants in humans.

In order to take this treatment from the laboratory to the clinic, a supply of "medical grade" pigs is necessary. To accomplish this Spring Point Project has built and populated a biosecure barrier facility for raising medical grade pigs for the planned pig islet transplant trials in humans. These animals represent the critical supply needed to translate the remarkable research from monkeys into people.

This Web site will tell you the rest of the story. But I want you to know and believe in this short-term possibility of a cure for diabetes, so that you might feel the sense of hope I have hope for a brighter future for all of us affected by diabetes.

We welcome others who share our vision of a brighter future. Please contact us for any reason, whether you simply want additional information or to be involved with us in a significant way. I want to meet you at some point and hear your story, about why you are so focused on supporting and advocating for a cure for diabetes. We are, after all, one community bound together by an ever increasing hope for a cure just around the corner.

Tom Cartier, Chairman
Board of Directors