Jean-Pierre Hallé

TITLE

• Full Professor of Medicine, University of Montreal
• Endocrinologist

EDUCATION

• M.D.,
• CSPQ, 
• FRCPC

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Our main research interest focuses on the development of bioartificial implant transplantation as a therapeutic approach, bioartificial implants consisting of a biological component and a polymer-based component. The biological component is generally a group of cells that secrete a therapeutic product such as a hormone, enzyme or drug. The artificial component is a microcapsule that contains and protects the transplanted cells against rejection and/or autoimmune aggression. This approach allows for transplantation without immunosuppression, considerably widening the potential for cellular therapy applications. Note that this method is applicable when the therapeutic product is a secreted substance and not the cell itself.

Our model of application is the treatment of insulinodependent diabetes by transplanting immunoprotected Islets of Langerhans by microencapsulation. Diabetes is an interesting model of application for this type of cellular therapy because of the need to constantly modulate the rate of insulin secretion; 1440 minutes per day, 365 days a year. This is what makes β insulin-secreting cells, which are all found in the pancreatic islets. Few therapy approaches meet this need.

The Islet of Langerhans is a structured group of cells, 85% of which are β cells. Even though insulin is a key player in controlling glycemia, glucagon, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptides, islets that are secreted respectively from a, d and pp cells contribute substantially either by their hyperglycemic action that counterbalances the effect of insulin; or by the modulation of insulin secretion. To preserve these interactions, the majority of research groups have chosen complete islet transplantation rather than isolated β cells.

Until problems related to the development of biocompatible and bioperformance microcapsules are resolved, many other applications will be tested.

RESEARCH TEAM

Ph.D. Students

• Julie Dusseault
• Susan K Tam

M.Sc. Student

• Geneviève Langlois
• Stéphanie Bilodeau

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Selected papers

Patents

Leblond F. and Hallé J.-P. Semi-permeable microcapsule with covalently linked layers and method for producing same. U.S. Patent # 7,1 28,931 B2, Oct. 31, 2006.

Books

Hallé Jean-Pierre, de Vos Paul, Rosenberg Lawrence. The Bioartificial Pancreas and other Biohybrid Therapies. Research Signpost Publishing. In preparation. More than 70 authors from 12 countries have written 31 chapters; 7 others are upcoming. Preface from Camillo Ricordi, director of Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami, founding CEO of Cell Transplant Society and member of Karolinska Institute, Stockolm, Suède. Seven chapters written by our team.

Other books chapters

Tam S.K., Hallé J.-P., Yahia L. La microencapsulation pour la thérapie cellulaire, in Vandamme T., Poncelet D., Subra-Pasternault P. (Eds). Microencapsulation: des sciences aux techniques. Lavoisier, Paris, France. 2007.

Dusseault J., Hallé J.-P. Alginate hydrogels for cell microencapsulation and immunoprotection, in Jie Hu (Ed). Recent Advances in Biomaterials Research. Research Signpost (Publisher), Kerala, India. In press, 2008.

Selected Articles from Journals with Peer Committees

Robitaille R., Dusseault J., Henley N., Rosenberg L., Hallé J.-P. Insulin-like growth factor II allows prolonged blood glucose normalization with a reduced islet cell mass transplantation. Endocrinology 144(7):3037-45, Jul. 2003.
Note : this article won 2003 « Endocrine Society Student Award », category « Outstanding Manuscript Published in Endocrinology ».

Tam S., Dusseault J., Politzu S., Ménard M., Hallé J.-P.*, Yahia L’H.*. Physicochemical model of alginate-poly-l-lysine microcapsules defined at the micrometric/nanometric scale using ATR FTIR, XPS, and ToF-SIMS. Biomaterials. 26(34):6950-61, 2005. * LHY and JPH contributed equally to this work.

Orive G., Tam S.K., Pedraz J.-L., Halle J.-P. Biocompatibility of alginate-poly-L-lysine microcapsules for cell therapy. Biomaterials (20):3691-700, 2006 (Invited leading opinion paper).

Vos P., Andersson A., Tam  S.K., Faas M.M., Hallé J.-P. Advances and barriers in mammalian cell encapsulation for treatment of diabetes. Immun., Endoc. & Metab. Agents in Med. Chem. (formerly Current medicinal chemistry- Immunology, endocrine and metabolic agents)., (6):139-153, 2006. (Invited review paper).

Dusseault J., Tam S., Ménard M., Politzu S., Harel F.,Yahia L’H., Hallé J.-P. Evaluation of alginate purification methods: effect of residual contaminants on alginate-based microcapsule immunogenicity. J Biomed Mater Res 76A: 243-251, 2006.

Dusseault J., Langlois G., Meunier M.-C., Ménard M., Perreault C., Hallé J.-P. The effect of covalent cross-links between the membrane components of microcapsules on the dissemination of encapsulated malignant cells. Biomaterials. 29 (7):917-24, 2008.

Complete liste of Dr. Hallé's publications (PubMed)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Collaborators from the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre

• Dr. Sylvie Lesage, Immunologist
• Dr. Nathalie Labrecque, Immunologist

Collaborators from the École Polytechnique de Montréal

• Dr. L’Hocine Yahia, Biomedical Engineer, specialization in materials
• Dr. Gregory de Crescenzo, Biomedical Engineer, specialization in materials

Collaborator from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Montreal:

• Dr. Julian Xiaoxia Zhu, Holder of Canada Research Chair in Polymer Chemistry

Collaborator from McGill University:

• Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg

Other collaborators:

• Dr. Rennian Wang, University of Western Ontario
• Dr. Paul de Vos, University of Groningen, Holland
• Dr. Gudmund Skjak-Braek, Norwaygian Institute of Sciences and Technologies, Trondheim, Norway
• Prof. PY Benhamou, CHU de Grenoble, France

Grants

• CDA

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