MCC’s investment in Path BioAnalytics (PBA) supported the creation of a new biobank that houses pancreatitis patient cell specimens, matching genetic and clinical data from people who have been diagnosed with pancreatitis or are at high risk of developing pancreatitis.

MCC’s investment in this foundational study helped fund a collaboration between the Pandol Laboratory at the Cedars-Sinai Pancreatic Research Program, dedicated to advancing the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases and the Sareen Laboratory, using stem cells (iPSCs) to model diseases and explore tomorrow’s therapeutics.

For decades, scientists have known that elevated CA19-9, a complex sugar structure that coats many proteins, was a biomarker for pancreatic cancer, but only recently did Dr. Engle and her colleagues at the Salk Research Institute discover that CA19-9 is directly involved in causing pancreatitis. CA19-9 is expressed in low levels in normal pancreatic ducts and becomes dramatically elevated locally and systemically in patients with pancreatic disease.

MCC invested in RMS to advance treatments for all types of diabetes, starting with Type 3c. Less common than Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, Type 3c diabetes, also referred to as “pancreatogenic” diabetes, results from a pancreatic condition such as chronic pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, pancreatic cancer or a total pancreatectomy.