News / Announcements
The Iacocca Foundation has awarded Doris A. Stoffers, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, $275,000 for her project, Modulation of autoimmunity in NOD mice.
Mr. Lee Iacocca founded The Iacocca Foundation in memory of his wife, Mary, who succumbed to a lifelong struggle with autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Each year The Iacocca Foundation awards grants to researchers working on promising diabetes projects.
The interaction and relative roles of primary defects in the immune system and the insulin-producing beta cell are still a matter of controversy,” says Dr. Stoffers who will collaborate with Ali Naji, M.D., Ph.D., J. William White Professor of Surgery, on this project.
Dr. Stoffers and Dr. Naji will determine whether a new way of modulating the immune system will prevent the progression of autoimmune diabetes and islet transplant rejection and whether impaired formation and/or survival of the insulin-producing beta cells contribute to the progression of autoimmune diabetes. Clarifying these roles will impact the choice of targets for the development of novel therapeutics for type 1 diabetes.
July 07, 2008
Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine receives $3.9M: Investigators from the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism to play crucial role in Regenerative Therapies in Diabetes research program.
University of Pennsylvania’s newly created Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM), in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Fox Chase Cancer Center, Haverford College, Lincoln University and Thomas Jefferson University, will receive $3.9 million from Pennsylvania’s share of the national tobacco settlement for 2007-2008. Investigators from the Penn Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (IDOM) will lead the Regenerative Therapies in Diabetes research program under the auspices of this grant.
IDOM investigators, led by Dr. Doris Stoffers, Associate Professor of Medicine, and collaborators at Children’s Hospital and Fox Chase will develop and test therapies for preserving and restoring the function of human islet beta cells, which produce insulin and are lacking in patients with diabetes.
PENN Medicine in the News
Study: Diabetes pills may be enough for many; Type 2 patients may be able to avoid insulin
Mark Schutta, MD, Medical Director of the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center, is quoted in a USA Today article discussing a new study presented at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting this past weekend. The study looked at treatment options for people with type 2 diabetes over the past 15 years, and researchers suggest that some patients can remain in good glucose control for years using non-insulin, oral diabetic agents.
Dr. Schutta says the results aren’t surprising, noting that "in the time that the study was done, we have had an almost logarithmic increase in the availability of different agents with different actions to treat diabetes.” Dr. Schutta notes it is not a revelation that the authors reported that the less obese, white patients were able to stay on oral medicines longer. "More obese patients have more need for more medication earlier in their disease," he says. Read USA Today article
MERIT Award given to Dr. Mitchell A. Lazar
Dr. Mitchell A. Lazar has received the NIDDK MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award. The MERIT acknowledges consistent and excellent contributions to scientific knowledge. MERIT awards are designed to provide a few outstanding investigators with the opportunity for long-term stable support, which will enhance their continued scientific creativity and lessen the administrative burdens associated with the preparation and submission of competing grant applications.
June 3, 2008
When it Comes to Nutrition, Do Doctors Practice What They Preach?
In a survey of MDs, Discover Magazine asks about the nutrition and exercise practices of eight physicians. Rexford Ahima, MD, Director of the Obesity Unit at the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism explains his plans for good health.
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