Baylor Research Institute Establishing Fort Worth Location
World-renowned Islet Cell Researcher to Join Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth
Contact: Mary Johnson, 817-922-7088 or Sunny Drenik, 817-922-7100Email: Maryjohn@baylorhealth.edu or Sunnydr@baylorhealth.edu
(FORT WORTH, Texas, October 24, 2006) - Dallas-based Baylor Research Institute is expanding to Tarrant County with the recruitment of Shinichi Matsumoto, M.D., Ph.D., of Kyoto, Japan, to Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth. Dr. Matsumoto is the world's only islet cell transplant researcher to have performed an islet cell transplant from a living donor. Dr. Matsumoto will relocate to Fort Worth to serve as director of the Baylor All Saints Islet Cell Laboratory and director of the Islet Cell Transplantation Laboratory at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research at Baylor Research Institute. The transplantation of pancreatic islet cells has come onto the forefront of research both for Type I (juvenile onset) diabetes and for transplantation.
Baylor All Saints Islet Laboratory represents a major expansion into Fort Worth of the Baylor Research Institute (BRI). Investigators at Baylor are conducting more than 650 active research protocols, spanning more than 20 medical specialties, including oncology, autoimmune diseases, and transplantation.
"The recruitment of Dr. Matsumoto to Baylor All Saints and the addition of Baylor Research Institute to Fort Worth is a major step in our commitment to bring the very best that health care has to offer to Fort Worth and all the communities we serve," said Steven R. Newton, president, Baylor All Saints Medical Centers. "Our patients can be among the first to participate in clinical trials and to benefit from resulting breakthroughs. The concept of translational research, bringing research from the lab to the bedside (bench-to-bedside), helps improve patients' quality of life."
Islet cell transplantation is still considered research, but results have shown promise in helping Type I diabetics achieve insulin independence and excellent blood sugar control. To date, physicians on the medical staff at Baylor have performed eight allograft (from one person to another) islet cell transplants on four patients. There also has been one autograft (from a person to themselves, after surgical removal of the pancreas) procedure in one patient.
"Dr. Matsumoto's standing as a world-class investigator in pancreatic islet cell transplantation propels Baylor All Saints to the front ranks of this field, and brings to the Fort Worth medical community exciting research in the area of juvenile diabetes, transplantation and immunology," said Marlon Levy, M.D., surgical director of transplantation at Baylor All Saints Medical Center and medical director of the Islet Cell Program.
Dr. Matsumoto graduated from medical school in 1988 and completed his postgraduate training in 1996 from Kobe University School of Medicine in Kobe, Japan. He is board certified in surgery and gastroenterological surgery. He joined the medical staff of Kobe University Hospital in 1996. From 1997 to 2002, Matsumoto studied at islet transplant centers in Minneapolis and Seattle. Matsumoto joined Northwest Tissue Center (Seattle) in 2000, as senior research scientist in Human Islet Transplantation and consultant to the Human Islet Processing Facility He currently serves as assistant professor at Kyoto University Hospital Transplantation Unit and director, Diabetes Research Institute, Kyoto.
The not-for-profit Baylor All Saints Medical Centers serve more than 100,000 people annually through two hospitals, numerous primary care physician centers and practices, a rehabilitation and fitness center, and a variety of medical specialties. Programs of excellence in cardiology, transplantation, neurosciences, oncology and women's services form the heart of the hospitals' services. All Saints joined Baylor Health Care System in January 2002. All Saints Health Foundation, a separately incorporated not-for-profit organization, raises and manages charitable funds to support Baylor All Saints Medical Centers. For fiscal year 2005, Baylor Health Care System reported $314 million in community benefit to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System's subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor All Saints Medical Center or Baylor Health Care System.