September 1989 at a symposium of two international societies in Minneapolis, USA (1) , I presented this first poster on the ‘ invention ‘ of using the UW solution ( the University of Wisconsin organ preservation solution) during pancreatic islet isolation, with the exciting discovery of near-complete purification of islets of Langerhans in the laboratory for transplantation in diabetic patients.

The next month at a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, this rather radical new concept was introduced (2, 3). June 1989 submission for publication as a letter in the Lancet had had no succes 😉

Poster designed and produced on my personal Macintosh ED and Imagewriter-II matrix printer, allowing full width printing over multiple pages in landscape (a low cost do-it-yourself discovery by me, at a time when posters were prepared on poster boards by graphical professionals using photography and special lettering techniques for around $400). Original MacDraw II file conversion with LibreOffice Vanilla.

Notes

1) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Ploeg RJ, Scherft JP, Field MJ, Guicherit OR, Terpstra JL, Van de Woude FT, Frölich M, Bruijn JA. Comparison of islet isolation techniques in dogs: Over 90% purified islets using UW solution. 4th International Symposium on Organ Procurement and Preservation and 2nd International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Transplantation, Minneapolis (USA) September 17–22, 1989.

2) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Ploeg RJ, Guicherit OR, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Bruijn JA, Frölich M. Pancreatic islet isolation with UW solution: a new concept. 4th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, Barcelona (Spain) November 1–4, 1989.

3) Van der Burg MPM, Gooszen HG, Ploeg RJ, Guicherit OR, Scherft JP, Terpstra JL, Bruijn JA, Frölich M. Pancreatic islet isolation with UW solution: a new concept. Transplant Proc 1990; 22: 2050–2051.

Updates

20240804 – This remastered 20240804 edition of the Minneapolis 1989 poster , now shows the original photo of the islet prep as posted at the meeting in 1989. In addition the correct line spacing is now restored.
The previous poster published online two years ago (20220822) showed a different photo print (higher magnification, and without the bar indicator) of the same islet prep, not the correct image.

20241211 – Minor text updates 

Citation info : Minneapolis 1989 Poster UW Solution Islet Isolation | 20220822 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg•com | TakeNode 91d70715-3fb3-4380-906a-0daf1b5ddd6a