1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to you as a constituent and a person living with Type 1 diabetes. I am reaching out to urge your support for the ISLET Act (S.3105), the Increase Support for Life-saving Endocrine Transplantation Act, introduced by Senators Mike Lee and Ted Budd. This bill represents a meaningful step toward a cure for a disease that affects my daily life and the lives of millions of Americans. The ISLET Act addresses a regulatory misclassification that has held back a proven, life-saving treatment for over a decade. Currently, the FDA classifies pancreatic islet cells from deceased donors as a manufactured drug product rather than as transplantable human tissue, like a kidney or a liver. This misclassification subjects islet transplantation to the same lengthy and expensive drug-approval process used for pharmaceutical products—a framework that makes no sense for human cells recovered from organ donors. The ISLET Act corrects this by reclassifying human cadaveric islets as organs under the Public Health Service Act, placing them under the oversight of HRSA and OPTN, the same well-established systems that already govern organ transplantation safely and effectively in the United States. This matters because islet transplantation has the potential to restore the body’s ability to produce insulin naturally—something no amount of technology or medication can truly replicate. For people like me, it represents the closest thing to a functional cure. Other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, already treat islet transplantation as standard care. The United States, despite leading the world in transplant medicine, has fallen behind because of this outdated regulatory framework. The ISLET Act would bring us in line with the rest of the developed world and open the door to treatment for the patients who need it most. I want to share briefly what it means to live with Type 1 diabetes, because I think it’s important to understand the stakes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own insulin-producing cells. There is no way to prevent it and, as of today, no cure. Managing it requires constant vigilance: monitoring blood sugar levels around the clock, calculating insulin doses for every meal and activity, and living with the ever-present risk of dangerous blood sugar swings. A low blood sugar episode can cause seizures, loss of consciousness, or death within minutes. Over the long term, even well-managed diabetes increases the risk of heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, blindness, and amputation. It is an exhausting, relentless disease, and it never takes a day off. I am hopeful that a cure is possible in my lifetime. The science is there. The international track record is there. What’s missing is the regulatory update that would allow American patients to benefit from it. The ISLET Act is that update, and I respectfully ask for your support in passing it. Thank you for your time and your consideration.