Prodo Labs provides human islets for research to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies interested in the development of new drugs for the treatment of diabetes. One of the limiting factors in diabetes drug development is the lack of adequate numbers of high quality human islets to perform both in vitro and in vivo testing. With its contracts with Organ Procurement Organizations and its expertise and leadership in processing human pancreases into high quality human islets, Prodo Labs is developing this service business with the major corporations developing new diabetes drugs. While each corporate contract is confidential, Prodo Labs is pleased to announce that the total R&D combined budgets for its contracted companies have reached the $26 Billion level. In addition, Prodo Labs has a contract with Invenio Institute to provide additional human islets for research to them for their distribution of these islets to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) funded investigators.
May 12, 2008 - Willem Kuhtreiber, PhD, joins Prodo Labs as Chief Scientific Officer.
Prodo Labs is pleased to announce that Willem Kuhtreiber has accepted the position of Chief Scientific Officer of Prodo Labs. Dr. Kuhtreiber brings many years of islet related research interest and productivity to Prodo Labs where he will be managing the company's research and development programs. His interests include islet function in vitro and in vivo, pathophysiology of Type 1 diabetes, encapsulated islet technology, and pancreas processing into high quality human islets. While he was most recently at City of Hope working in the Endocrinology Division in human islet research and clinical transplantation, he was the Director of Cell Biology at Novocell for several years previous. Earlier, he was at Harvard Medical School and at Biohybrid. His complete bio is located on this website under Company, Management.
April, 2008 - Invenio Institute Awarded Contract by Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to Distribute Human Islets for Research to Their Funded Investigators.
The JDRF has renewed a contract with Invenio Institute to distribute human islets which had distributed 5 million human islets during the first contract in 2007. This new contract permits Invenio Institute to utilize the automated website of the ICR to alert investigators on the availability of human islets following their processing. Invenio Institute contracts with Prodo Laboratories, Inc to obtain the human research pancreases and process them into high quality human islets that Invenio Institute then distributes to the JDRF funded investigators
September 16, 2007 - Prodo Laboratories, Inc. launches two new products at the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA) Conference in Minneapolis.
Prodo Labs is launching two new tissue culture products specifically designed for islets at the international IPITA meeting where islet researchers meet to share the latest advances in diabetes research. The first is PIM(S) an islet tissue culture media made for culturing human islets for up to three weeks. Comparison testing with existing tissue culture media for islets shows PIM(S) helps islets rapidly recover from the damage involved with processing them from the pancreas. This new media also permits long-term islet culture to permit longer research studies. The second new product, PIM(T), is a new cold storage media preparation permitting shipping of islets domestically as well as internationally due to 3-4 days of cold storage. The preparation differs significantly from others available in utilizing a different type of formulation that not only permits cold storage of islets but also transition to normal culture temperature
Prodo Labs also provides human islets to academic and corporate diabetes researchers who find difficulty obtaining viable, high quality islets in the amounts needed to complete their research objectives. A proprietary pancreas processing procedure provides uniformly high quality human islets for research to these investigators.
July 15, 2007 - Prodo Labs Announces Acceptance of Small Business Administration Loan.
Prodo Laboratories, Inc is pleased to announce that its application to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has been accepted with a loan from Plaza Bank, Irvine, CA for $300,000 to initiate activation of the company's operations. This funding permits Prodo Labs to activate its Service Business of providing viable human insulin-producing islets from human research pancreases to diabetic researchers for them to complete their funded projects. Prodo Labs contracts directly with corporate investigators needing high quality human islets for their research. Invenio Institute, a not-for-profit California benefit company, contracts with Prodo Labs to provide it human islets for research that it distributes to academic, institutional, and not-for -profit based diabetes researchers. Prodo Labs wishes to acknowledge the expert advise and assistance it received from two SCORE counselors, Jim Anderson and Joel Mascitelli, in preparation for this loan application and ongoing assistance in getting the company operational. SCORE is a voluntary organization sponsored by the SBA whose mission is to assist in the development of small businesses in the USA
July 5, 2007 - Prodo Laboratories, Inc. begins processing human pancreases.
Prodo Labs begins operations today by processing its first human pancreas into viable human islets to be sent to diabetes researchers to assist their efforts to help patients with diabetes. After many months of construction and structural improvements, placement of research and laboratory equipment, obtaining research supplies and disposables, the new research team at Prodo Labs processed its first human pancreas in the newly formed laboratories with success and excitement. It had been many months since the researchers, well trained and expert in human pancreas processing into insulin producing islet cells, had been able to turn their expertise into turning the collagenase digested pancreas into viable insulin producing cells needed to advance diabetes research. The islets that were the result of their efforts were shipped to an academic research laboratory in Tennessee working on islet transplantation for the treatment of diabetes. All involved in this first processing anticipate many productive human islet processes to take place going forward and to provide more islets for diabetes researchers
June 1, 2007 - Invenio Institute receives contract from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to provide human islets for JDRF and NIH diabetes researchers.
Invenio Institute was awarded a research contract to distribute human islets for research to academic investigators needing these insulin-producing cells to advance their research studies to create new treatments to help patients with this disease. Invenio Institute contracts with Prodo Laboratories, Inc. to produce viable human insulin-producing islet cells from cadaver donated human pancreases. There are over 100 diabetes researchers funded by the JDRF and the NIH in need of human islet cells to complete their research objectives. This contract will help provide more of these critically needed islets for researchers discover more about their normal function, how to potentially expand these cells to provide more islets for treating diabetes, how to prevent the cells from being destroyed following their implant into diabetic recipients, and to understand how islets are affected by diabetes
May 31, 2007 - Jenine A. McQuaid joins Prodo Laboratories, Inc as Chief Operating Officer.
Prodo Laboratories, Inc is pleased to announce Jenine A. McQuaid as its first Chief Operating Officer who will take responsibility for the day to day operations of the company. She brings many skills to Prodo Labs in the areas of strategic planning, product development, product management, sales and marketing, and customer service. She has worked in a global market place in her previous positions. Her ability to put this experience together to manage the day to day operations and assisting in the planning of strategic directions for the company provides Prodo Labs a high quality, strong leader to build Prodo Labs into a major diabetes company
November 16, 2006 - Prodo Laboratories Inc. and Invenio Insitute are announced at the Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium
Irvine, Ca. Two new diabetes companies, Prodo Laboratories, Inc. and Invenio Institute, announced their launch at the Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium held last week in Long Beach, CA. Prodo Laboratories, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company located in Irvine, CA, will provide primary human islets as a research service to corporate investigators and will offer islet research tissue culture media, reagents, and factors to diabetes researchers. In addition to pursuing its own research programs, it will also provide small company incubator opportunities in diabetes. Invenio Institute, a California public benefit company also in Irvine, CA, is a new diabetes research institute that will begin providing human islets to academic researchers as it builds its diabetes research program.
David W. Scharp, MD, Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of both new companies, stated "These two companies will focus their initial efforts on increasing the availability of primary human islets for research and providing high quality research reagents to diabetes investigators. It is important to build these two new diabetes companies now with the serious increase in the incidence of diabetes in the world's population, driving a critical need for new research efforts."
Dr. Scharp has had a long and productive career in diabetes and islet transplantation research and was a co-founder of Cytotherapeutics, Inc (1989) and a co-founder of Novocell, Inc. (1999), where he recently resigned to pursue these new opportunities. He has published over 200 scientific papers and holds 13 patents.
Diabetes is a world wide, major health problem with its complications leading to blindness, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, gangrene and amputation, impotence, and significantly reduced quality of life. The USA is seeing major increases in this disease at much younger age of onset with estimates of diagnosed diabetes now reaching the 40 million level.
November 1, 2006 - Prodo Laboratories, Inc and Invenio Institute rent office space.
Prodo Laboratories and Invenio Institute have rented a two story 8,100 sq ft office suite with warehouse at 32A Mauchly, Irvine, CA 92618 to be developed into a research and development facility. Research laboratories, product development space, and tissue culture media production will be constructed within this space and associated infrastructure required to support the laboratory additions
September 19, 2006 - Invenio Institute founded.
Invenio Institute has been founded as a California public benefit company to function as a not-for-profit research institute to perform diabetes research that will lead to new products for patients with diabetes
September 11, 2006 - Prodo Laboratories, Inc. founded.
Prodo Laboratories, Inc was founded today founded as a Delaware corporation intending to operate as a for-profit diabetes biotechnology company to develop products for diabetes researchers and for patients with diabetes.