EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Program

Towards a Cure for Diabetes

Diabetes is a severe, life-threatening disease resulting from an impairment of the body's ability to turn glucose into usable energy.
In 1997, research scientists at the Strelitz Diabetes Center at Eastern Virginia discovered a gene called they called INGAP (Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein) as a possible cure for diabetes. This breakthrough discovery was made under the direction of Dr Aaron I. Vinik, Director of Research. Dr. Vinik’s research team collaborated with Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, M.D., who is the Director of Surgical Research at McGill University and the Center for Diabetes Research at Montreal General Hospital in Montreal, Canada.

The work on INGAP was based on the strong belief that the cure for diabetes was in finding a way to generate new insulin secreting cells from the body’s own pancreatic islet cells.

Elias S. Siraj, M.D., FACP
Director

855 Brambleton Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23510

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At the 1999 Cosmopolitan International Convention in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, the delegates approved the support of the INGAP diabetes research efforts as a new Cosmopolitan International Project. This support was reaffirmed at the 2000 Cosmopolitan International Convention in Rapid City, South Dakota, when the delegates approved a commitment to raise $150,000 each year for the next five years for INGAP research to find a cure for diabetes.
While INGAP is able to regenerate insulin-producing cells, the auto immune process, characteristic of type 1 diabetes, continues to destroy the cells. Now a new approach to preserving the beta cells in the pancreas is underway.
Recently, David Taylor-Fishwick, PhD, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine and Director of the Cell, Molecular and Islet Biology Laboratory, began working on research which applies to both regenerative and autoimmune medicine.
The great news is that Dr. Taylor-Fishwick was awarded a grant by the Department of Defense that will fund the next phase in the team’s research –finding a way to neutralize the immune system’s attack of the beta cells. This immune attack occurs at the onset of diabetes and may continue after type 1 diabetes has appeared.

From EVMS Website:
Research for a cure

Our researchers conduct numerous clinical trials and research studies to explore better management strategies and develop possible treatments for diabetes and diabetic complications.

Investigators are working to understand the correlations between diabetes and heart disease, stop damage and safely regenerate new insulin-producing cells and identify new biomarkers for Type 1 diabetes to explore if a virus triggers the disease's development.