Abstract
University of South Florida Awarded $128 Million Type 1 Diabetes Grant
The University of South Florida (USF) has been awarded a $128 million, 7-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to coordinate worldwide studies on the prevention and treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Diabetes researcher Dr. Jeffrey Krischer will head the study's data coordinating and technology center. The new funding goes toward a study called TrialNET, in which researchers will screen more than 150,000 children and adults for early signs of diabetes. Those considered at high risk may receive novel drugs to prevent progression of the disease. Dr. Krischer also chairs one of the studies in TrialNET, an investigation into the preventative role of insulin in individuals who are genetically predisposed to develop Type 1 diabetes.
In 2007, Dr. Krischer received funding for The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) - a $169-million, 10-year grant awarded by the NIH. Over 250,000 newborns in six countries will be screened by TEDDY to locate newborns that are genetically at high risk to develop Type 1 diabetes. Researchers will subsequently study approximately 8,000 identified at-risk infants for 15 years in an effort to determine whether food, illnesses or other factors influence who among them develops diabetes. As is the case with the most recent award, the funds are being used in studies that move from identification of the genesis of the disease toward prevention and treatment.
Dr. Krisher has been awarded a total of $389-million in funding for USF, putting the school into the to 50 U.S. medical schools receiving NIH funding. He serves as Professor and chief of the biostatistics and informatics division and director of the pediatric epidemiology center atUSF.
Massachusetts Receives $1 Billion in State Funds for Biotechnology
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill that will set aside $1 billion of state funds over a 10 year period to support research grants and improve facilities-both private and public-for biotechnology research. The plan calls for $250million in tax incentives to encourage companies to expand, $250 million in grants for research, fellowships or workforce training, and $500 million for infrastructure, including a stem cell bank at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Governor Patrick indicated that the legislation will also create a quarter of a million jobs within the next decade. Massachusetts currently has about 75,000 life sciences jobs, accounting for about 1 percent of its workforce. The state's two internationally acclaimed universities, four medical schools, 20 teaching hospitals and over 500 life science companies already make the area a major center for medicine and the life sciences.
Harvard Stem Cell Institute Researchers Produce 20 Disease-Specific Stem Cell Lines
Researchers at Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) announced the creation of 20 disease-specific stem cell lines. Researcher George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston and HSCI colleagues Chad Cowan, PhD, and Konrad Hochedlinger, PhD, of Massachussetts General Hospital (MGH) described the work in a paper published August 7 in the online edition of the journal Cell. The cell lines will be deposited in a new HSCI iPS Core laboratory that is being established at MGH, and iPS Core operations will be overseen by Dr. Daley. HSCI co-director and co-chairman of Harvard's new interfaculty Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Doug Melton, PhD, indicated that the HSCI iPS Core will serve as a repository and technical laboratory to store and produce these disease-specific lines for global scientific use. He also indicated that scientists around the world would be able to access the cells in the iPS Core to further their research.
The cell lines were created using the new induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technique and were developed from the cells of patients suffering from various conditions. Patients ranged in age from one month to 57 years. The cell lines produced carry the genes of genetic components of 10 different diseases, including Down Syndrome, Type I diabetes, Parkinson's Disease, severe combined immunodeficiency disease, Huntington's Disease, Gaucher's Disease, two forms of Muscular Dystrophy, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, and others. Researchers will benefit from the iPS Core by having cell lines available for use in discovery of gene therapies and drug development.
Grant funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an NIH Director's Pioneer Award of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, an NIH Innovator's Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Children's Hospital Boston Stem Cell Program, the Stowers Medical Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute were used to support the study.
First Three Recipients of “Tomorrow's Leaders in Alzheimer's Disease Research” Prizes Announced
The first round of Tomorrow's Leaders in Alzheimer's Disease Research awards has been awarded. The prizes are worth $100,000 each and were established to recognize and foster outstanding new MD or PhD Alzheimer's disease investigators who have made significant contributions to early detections, prevention and treatment of the disease. The prize funds may be used for any purpose at the discretion of each recipient. The three sponsoring organizations are the Cure Alzheimer's Fund, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. Each organization has committed $100,000 to fund the three prizes annually.
The award honors Alzheimer's disease research pioneers George G. Glenner, MD, and Leon J. Thal, MD.
Dr. Glenner (1928-1995) served as head of the molecular pathology section and chaired the Department of Medicine and Physiology at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences at the National Institutes of Health from 1958 to 1980. He accepted a position as research pathologist at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine in 1982. In 1984 he and his assistant, Cai'ne Wong, announced the isolation and identification of beta-amyloid and its connection with Alzheimer's - setting the cornerstone for the amyloid hypothesis.
Dr. Thal (1944-2007), known for his expertise in conceptualizing and designing Alzheimer clinical studies, led an unparalleled clinical research effort which yielded key symptomatic treatments for Alzheimer's disease. He served as head of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) and directed the UCSD Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Center - one of the original five centers funded by the National Institute on Aging. He also served as chair of the Department of Neurosciences at UCSD.
The awards were officially presented in May at the Alzheimer's Association National Gala in Washington D.C. The three recipients are: