Three UF researchers win diabetes award
By Diane Chun
Sun staff writer
Published: Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 4:31 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 4:31 p.m.
A trio of University of Florida scientists has been honored for their
research into type 1 diabetes at the annual Juvenile Diabetes
Research Conference in Washington, DC.
They received the sixth annual "Excellence in Clinical Research"
award from Mary Tyler Moore and her husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine.
The recipients are Mark Atkinson, director of the JDRF Gene Therapy
Center for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications at the University of
Florida and University of Miami; Dr. Michael Haller, professor of
pediatrics in the UF College of Medicine; and Dr. Desmond Schatz,
medical director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence and associate
director of UF's General Clinical Research Center.
The three researchers are involved in several JDRF-funded studies to
accelerate the development of a cure for type 1 diabetes, including
using umbilical cord blood stem cells as a potential therapy and
investigating drug treatments used in tandem to provide immune
suppression while boosting the regeneration of insulin-producing
cells.
"Their willingness to challenge conventional wisdom and consequent
ground-breaking work in translating novel scientific insights into
new, potentially life-changing therapies and cures represents the
sort of leadership we value most," Moore said in presenting the award
at the recent meeting.
Atkinson has spent 25 years in the field of type 1 diabetes research.
He is an internationally-
for medical science research. His work focuses on disease prediction
and prevention, environmental factors in the onset of the disease and
the study of gene therapy to cure diabetes and prevent its
complications.
Haller has spent his research career developing safe and effective
therapies to prevent and reverse type 1 diabetes. He is an active
investigator in research funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Schatz has been involved in type 1 diabetes research since the 1980s,
focusing on prediction, natural history, genetics and prevention of
the disease, as well as the management of children and adolescents
with type 1 diabetes. He is the principal investigator on several
JDRF and NIH projects and co-principal investigator on a JDRF-funded
project studying the origin and development of type 1 diabetes.
More than 700,000 Americans have type 1 diabetes, which strikes
suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a
continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is
not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and
devastating complications, which may include kidney failure,
blindness, heart disease, stroke and amputation.
Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1
diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.16 billion to diabetes
research, including more than $137 million in the last fiscal year,
when it funded 700 centers, grants and fellowships in 20 countries.
Diane Chun can be reached at 374-5041 or by e-mail at
chund@gvillesun.
http://www.gainesvi
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
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Cord Blood Registry
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The CNS Healing Group
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