Diabetes | Minnesota Medical Foundation

Where stress, diabetes, and culture converge

2013-04-29T19:52:10Z

A UMD study explores the link between stress and high diabetes rates among Native Americans of the Midwest

By Gene Rebeck

Sociologist Melissa Walls, Ph.D., wants to make something clear: She’s not the story behind the $2.8 million National Institutes of Health research grant that she, a Medical School, Duluth colleague, and two other researchers were awarded last fall.

The story, as she sees it, is about adults her team will be working with to examine the ties between stress and type 2 diabetes among Native Americans — the population with the highest diabetes rate in the world.

“I consider them co-investigators,” says Walls, who is leading the five-year study. “They are equal partners.”

Walls, who studies the social aspects of disease among indigenous people, is Ojibwe herself, with many relatives on the Bois Forte reservation on Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota. Bois Forte is one of the five Midwestern indigenous communities participating in the study. (Walls shares the names of participating communities only when they ask to be named publicly.)

The longitudinal study will follow a cohort of 250 people for four years, periodically monitoring their self-reported stress levels and measuring their blood sugar and cortisol levels. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, can increase blood sugar and inhibit the effects of insulin, leading to or compounding diabetes.

Improving Native Americans’ health

Walls, a University of Minnesota, Duluth graduate, earned a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She returned to Duluth in 2007 as an assistant professor in the sociology department, where she earned grants for studying American Indian health. The work connected her with research partners in the Medical School, and she joined its faculty in 2011. “It was a natural fit,” Walls notes, given that improving Native American health is among the school’s priorities.

Collaborating with Walls on the current study are professor Mustafa al’Absi, Ph.D., director of the Duluth Medical Research Institute at UMD and an expert on the biological and physiological mechanisms of stress; sociologist Les Whitbeck, Ph.D., Walls’s mentor at Nebraska; and Kelley Sittner Hartshorn, Ph.D., from Oklahoma State University.

The project grew out of a diabetes study called mino giizhigad (“good day” in Ojibwe). On that study, Walls worked with Doris Isham, a diabetes nurse at Bois Forte. Isham told her that although her patients conscientiously took their medications and gave themselves shots, they were far less likely to exercise or eat healthier diets. It was almost as if they were giving up. “To me,” Walls says, “it sounded like depression or apathy.”

That insight led her to consider how stress affects type 2 diabetes in American Indian communities. Type 2 diabetes is the fourth-leading cause of death among indigenous Americans and a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer in this population. American Indians and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely as other Americans to have diabetes.

While many studies have looked at type 2 diabetes among U.S. indigenous people, little has been written about the connection between diabetes and stress. “We know that stress and diabetes are related — [stress] impacts your ability to control diabetes, your health behaviors,” says Walls, who wants to learn more about how stress affects treatment compliance and disease progression.

Dealing with stress—past and present

Her goal is to develop treatment protocols for indigenous people that take into account their culture and history. This population copes with a disproportionate number of stressors, says Walls, naming several: economic disadvantage, unemployment, community violence, discrimination, and the long-term effects of historical traumas.

Walls is particularly interested in the last one — how catastrophic experiences in a group’s past affect its current members’ emotional and physical health. For indigenous people, she says, particularly those who live on reservations, historical trauma is bound up with cultural loss. What happened in the past, she argues, is related to contemporary stressors.

Her mentor, Whitbeck, codeveloped a “historical-loss scale” based on such questions as how often participants think about loss of land, language, tradition, and other aspects of their culture. “In some cases, 25 percent of our sample was thinking of these certain losses more than daily,” says Walls, describing a previous study she and Whitbeck conducted.

To get a true sense of the stressors indigenous people struggle with requires a deep engagement with them and their way of life, says Walls. In the current study, she and her team will be working with research councils in each community. The councils, which will include at least one member with type 2 diabetes, a tribal elder, and a service provider working with type 2 patients, will help develop questionnaires, recruit participants, and collect data. This inclusive approach, Walls says, “acknowledges the community as an equal partner in the research process.”

Bois Forte elder and community leader Stan Day has worked with Walls in the past and will serve on the community research council. “It’s a special thing for me to work for my people in any capacity that I can,” says Day. “I also have diabetes. It’s a double concern.” like Walls, he believes that the loss of land and culture is still affecting his people. “It’s something we have to heal from,” he says.

Walls hopes her team’s results aid that healing. “This is a basic research grant, but our long-term goal is always translating that basic research into something that’s actually usable and tangible. every little bit we do brings awareness.”

By Gene Rebeck, a freelance writer based in Duluth.

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Discoveries in Diabetes

2013-03-27T16:34:12Z

Spring 2013

Crossing the finish line

With clinical trials complete, private funds are needed to gain FDA approval for human islet transplants

Pastor Constance “Connie” Olson worked 70-hour weeks, tending to the needs—spiritual and otherwise—of her congregation. She was also a type 1 diabetic, suff ering from hypoglycemic unawareness. This complication meant that she didn’t experience early warning signs of dangerously low blood sugar—such as sweating, dizziness, and extreme hunger—causing her to unexpectedly have seizures and lose consciousness.

‘A game-changer’

Siobhan O’Brien Olson grew up understanding the importance of community giving. In fact, her family’s Alice M. O’Brien Foundation has been supporting numerous charities in Minnesota for 60 years. Nearly eight years ago, the foundation established the O’Brien BioBank for lung research at the University of Minnesota—just one of numerous gi s the foundation has made to support medical research at the University.

Join us for a special event: Never a vacation!

Enjoy a luncheon and style show featuring adult and children’s clothing from designers and retailers. Proceeds support the University’s diabetes immunology research led by Brian Fife, Ph.D.

IRA charitable giving opportunity extended for 2013

Thanks to recent legislation, you can again benefit from a popular tax-advantaged giving option.

About Discoveries in Diabetes

Discoveries in Diabetes is published by the University of Minnesota Foundation. Reader comments and suggestions are welcome. Contact the editor directly at 612-624-8654 or rwhite@umn.edu.

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Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Crossing the finish line

2013-03-27T16:02:26Z

With clinical trials complete, private funds are needed to gain FDA approval for human islet transplants

Pastor Constance “Connie” Olson worked 70-hour weeks, tending to the needs—spiritual and otherwise—of her congregation. She was also a type 1 diabetic, suffering from hypoglycemic unawareness. This complication meant that she didn’t experience early warning signs of dangerously low blood sugar—such as sweating, dizziness, and extreme hunger—causing her to unexpectedly have seizures and lose consciousness.

“I was very rigid in my care,” Olson says. “I tested my blood sugar 12 times a day. I never drove without testing. And I was afraid to leave the house without my glucose tablets or monitor. I loved my work, and it was really hard for me to admit that I wasn’t feeling well.”

Olson applied to and was eventually accepted into the University of Minnesota’s human-to-human islet cell transplantation clinical trial—her best hope of a cure. After undergoing two islet transplants, she is now free from the daily burden of diabetes.

The clinical trial that Olson participated in is now complete and boasting impressive results. And the University is positioned to become one of the first centers in the country to offer human islet transplantation as a routine medical procedure for qualified adults. The final step needed to bring these transplants to more patients is the estimated $5 million funding required to obtain a biologic license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to procure islets from donor pancreases for transplantation.

U of M: A leader in human islet transplantation

The transplantation of islets from a donor pancreas into a diabetic patient has been studied since the 1970s. In fact, the first transplant of its kind to treat type 1 diabetes occurred at the University in 1974. Numerous studies and clinical trials have followed, with tremendous progress in recent years.

In 2004, the University was selected as one of three principal sites to conduct phase III clinical trials in human islet transplants—a $100 million, multicenter trial supported by the National Institutes of Health. The clinical trial was a success for patients like Olson and many others, giving them lives free from diabetes.

“No other center has enrolled more patients than the U of M,” says Bernhard Hering, M.D., scientific director of the University’s Schulze Diabetes Institute. “The U of M has been a major contributor to this study at several levels.”

The best results

Today, the U’s clinical trials are delivering the world’s best results: all transplant recipients were protected from hypoglycemia immediately after the transplant, 80 percent remained protected from severe hypoglycemia for five years post transplant, 90 percent have become insulin independent, and more than 50 percent have maintained insulin independence for five years post-transplant.

“It is fair to say that both the efficacy and safety results are very favorable and clearly document the feasibility of the human islet transplants in helping and treating people with type 1 diabetes complicated by hypoglycemic unawareness,” Hering says.

He emphasizes how miserable life can be for those with hypoglycemic unawareness, recalling stories of patients who have lost jobs, homes, and marriages. But after receiving the islet transplant, patients seem to get a second chance at a normal life.

“With islet transplantation, people now, for the very first time, can enjoy a life no longer restricted by constant fears and worries. We consider this a privilege, being able to participate in this life-changing research,” Hering says.

Funding still needed

With decades of research complete, the University has one more step: securing a biologic license from the FDA to procure islets from donor pancreases for transplantation, a process that will require about $5 million.

A lead gift of $50,000 from Wally and Cecy Faster in January of this year will help the University of its way to raising the funds needed to become the first U.S. clinic to transplant human islets as an approved medical procedure.

Once licensed, the University will offer patients greater access to islet transplantation and will use this treatment as the platform for continuing to develop the next-generation of transplantation cures, including the use of pig and stem cell islets, with minimal or no antirejection drugs.

Today Olson is busy spreading the gospel of islet transplantation, speaking to groups about the transformational procedure. “It’s one way for me to contribute,” she says, “to say thank you and to help make future transplants possible, especially for children.”

Help us reach this goal

Contact Jean Gorell at 612-625-0497 or jgorell@umn.edu.

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Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

'A game-changer'

2013-03-27T15:08:54Z

Siobhan O’Brien Olson grew up understanding the importance of community giving. In fact, her family’s Alice M. O’Brien Foundation has been supporting numerous charities in Minnesota for 60 years. Nearly eight years ago, the foundation established the O’Brien BioBank for lung research at the University of Minnesota—just one of numerous gifts the foundation has made to support medical research at the University.

But it is the foundation’s latest gift of $15,000 to support diabetes research at the University that’s top of mind for O’Brien Olson and her husband, Dave Olson. “Diabetes affects every side of our family in some way, shape, or form,” says O’Brien Olson. “When we heard about the artificial pancreas project [featured in the last issue of Discoveries in Diabetes], we thought it could really be a game-changer.”

Diagnosed at age 17 with type 1 diabetes, Dave Olson appreciates the project’s research potential. A few years ago, when adding a continuous glucose monitoring system to his insulin pump, he asked how the system and the pump communicate and was surprised to learn that the pump did not take in that glucose information to automatically adjust the insulin dose.

That could all change with the creation of an artificial pancreas that uses a wireless sensor being developed by Steven Koester, Ph.D., a professor in the University’s electrical engineering department. The monitor, which is still in the design phase, senses glucose levels and sends that information to the pump, which automatically supplies the correct amount of insulin.

A call for proposals from the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics—a collaboration of the University and Mayo Clinic—sparked Koester’s search for potential research partners at Mayo. There he found Yogish Kudva, M.B.B.S., and Ananda Basu, M.B.B.S., M.D., who were building an artificial pancreas but had run into sensor issues.

“In talking together,” Koester says, “we realized they had a sensor problem my idea could potentially solve.” Since then, the trio has made impressive progress, but they have more work ahead and need additional support.

This project is buoyed by the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics’ statewide campaign to prevent, treat, and cure diabetes—called Decade of Discovery. But Koester says that private philanthropy remains critical, and he’s grateful for the generosity of donors like the Alice M. O’Brien Foundation, “It’s vital to sustain this project as we gather data and write proposals,” he adds.

The Olsons hope the breakthrough comes soon. “It seems like a natural next step, and I think they’re very close,” says Dave Olson. “This technology will go a long way toward substantially improving the lives of those of us who live each day with diabetes. It is a very exciting and real step forward in diabetes management.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

IRA charitable giving opportunity extended for 2013

2013-03-07T15:38:41Z

Thanks to recent legislation, you can again benefit from a popular tax-advantaged giving option.

Make a gift of up to $100,000 directly from your IRA to the University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF) to support medicine and health research before December 31, 2013, and you can avoid paying federal income tax on the amount of your gift.

These rules apply to IRA charitable rollovers in 2013:

Only IRAs are eligible (other types of retirement accounts are not).
You must be age 701/2 or older at the time you make your gift.
Your gift must come directly from the IRA custodian to UMF.
You can give up to $100,000 from your IRA to one or more qualified charities in 2013 (and if your spouse has a separate IRA, you can each give up to $100,000).
Your gift must be outright; it cannot be used to fund a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust.

While you will not be able to claim a charitable deduction for your IRA rollover gift, you also won’t owe federal income tax on any amount up to $100,000 that you distribute to a qualified charity.

To learn more about supporting University of Minnesota research, education, and care through the IRA charitable rollover option or through another type of planned gift, contact our gift planning team via email or at 612-624-3333 or 800-775-2187.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Building an artificial pancreas

2012-09-10T16:22:10Z

U, Mayo Clinic working to develop a revolutionary treatment

Diabetes never takes a break.

For people living with type 1 diabetes, the task of monitoring blood glucose levels and administering insulin is always at the forefront of their minds. It’s something they must do multiple times a day, every day.

But University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic scientists are working together to build an artificial pancreas that would eliminate this burden.

As part of this work, the University’s Steven Koester, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, is designing a more accurate and reliable continuous glucose sensor that would make the artificial pancreas a better treatment option.

Tackling the sensor problem

For the last five years, Mayo Clinic researchers, Yogish Kudva, M.B.B.S., and Ananda Basu, M.B.B.S., M.D., have been developing an artificial pancreas for treating type 1 diabetes.

Here’s how it works: The artificial pancreas consists of a continuous glucose sensor, insulin pump, and a computer algorithm that controls the insulin delivery—accessed by a laptop or hand-held device. The sensor and insulin pump are placed at two separate sites under the skin on the abdomen. The sensor records the glucose data, the computer algorithm calculates how much insulin a patient needs (and when), and the insulin pump then delivers insulin beneath the skin.

To date, teams engaged in artificial pancreas research have relied on commercial glucose sensors for this device, but those sensors have many limitations.

One major drawback is that the commercial sensor provides data about glucose levels in tissue, but not in blood. “If there is a delay in what happens in blood verses tissue, the data becomes less reliable,” says Kudva.

The sensor’s location on the body also must be changed every three to seven days—a nuisance that could inhibit use by patients. In addition, the commercial sensor is also about the size of two postage stamps. If it were even smaller, Kudva says, more people may be willing to wear it.

Other shortcomings: “The [sensor’s] lifetime is relatively short,” Koester says. “A new sensor is needed every three to seven days.” And the sensor’s wires stick out of the patient’s body.

Koester hopes his new sensor will provide better usability and data for the artificial pancreas. “The Achilles’ heel is the sensor—it could be done better,” he says.

The U’s new sensor

To improve upon the current technology, Koester is testing a material called graphene that would be placed under the skin. “It’s a two-dimensional piece of carbon that’s one atom thick,” he explains.

He also is working on attaching receptors to the graphene sensor so that it can detect glucose. The sensor then wirelessly sends the data to the device’s computer, which tells the insulin pump what to do.

The wireless graphene sensor is much smaller than the current commercial sensor—about the size of a grain of sea salt. Because of the small size and lack of wires, Koester says, it could be put in more inconspicuous places.

“It’s a new way of doing sensing,” he says. “You could get a better glucose reading.”

Gathering more accurate glucose data would help patients who are living with diabetes, Kudva says. “If we get a more reliable signal, then we can fine-tune the insulin better.”

Philanthropic support needed

This collaboration was made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Decade of Discovery—a statewide initiative of the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, a collaboration of the University, Mayo Clinic, and the state of Minnesota. But that funding will soon run out.

Mayo Clinic will be conducting human testing of the artificial pancreas with the commercial sensor. But more funding is needed to further develop the University’s new graphene sensor before it can be tested in clinical trials.

Both Kudva and Koester agree that philanthropy could play a big role in advancing this work. “To make an impact quickly, it could be tremendous to have additional funds to develop the technology,” Koester says. “It’s one of these potential game changers.”

The goal is to get the graphene sensor to market as soon as possible, Kudva says, adding, “Philanthropy will definitely enable us to go faster and further.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Sutherland wins international award

2012-09-10T16:20:57Z

University of Minnesota transplant surgeon David E. R. Sutherland, M.D., Ph.D., received the 2012 Medawar Prize in July at the 24th International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Berlin, Germany. The award is considered the world’s highest recognition for contributions to the field of transplantation.

Sutherland, a professor of surgery and director of the University’s Schulze Diabetes Institute, performed the world’s first living-donor partial pancreas transplant at the University of Minnesota in 1979.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Gifts of gratitude honor late wife

2012-09-10T16:11:52Z

Husband’s current and planned gifts support U diabetes research

It wasn’t love at first sight when Rudy Dankwort met his future wife, Kathryn. She was 7 and he was a teen. Kathryn was his best friend’s little sister. But the two fell in love 11 years later and married, beginning a 37-year union that lasted until her death in 2009.

Although Kathryn Dankwort died shortly after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, she had endured type 1 diabetes since she was 12 years old.

When her kidneys failed in 1997, Kathryn began hemodialysis and then peritoneal dialysis, which pumped four to five gallons of fluid a day through a surgical tube in her stomach. Rudy saw his wife’s struggles and wanted a better life for her. He became determined to donate one of his kidneys to Kathryn. “Chances of success are much better with a living-donor kidney,” he says.

The couple researched various transplant programs. “We had four choices,” says the Arizona native, “and we picked the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. They did everything right … for us.”

Dankwort remembers arriving in snowy Minneapolis and being thrilled to meet David E. R. Sutherland, M.D., Ph.D., former director of the pancreas and kidney transplant program at the University. Sutherland is famous for performing the world’s first living-donor partial pancreas transplant at the University—one of the school’s many world firsts.

While many people called Dankwort’s gift of his kidney unselfish, he doesn’t look at it that way: “That was the most selfish thing I ever did in my life. What was important to me was [Kathryn]. She meant everything to me.”

That transplant, which Dankwort calls a “complete success,” plus a follow-up pancreas transplant at the University a year later, gave Kathryn eight years of a healthful life, plus freedom from diabetes, until her body rejected the pancreas in 2007. A second pancreas transplant wasn’t as successful, although it meant that she only needed to supplement with insulin injections—averting the need for the resumption of a harsh dialysis regimen.

Today, Rudy Dankwort is a generous supporter of the University’s diabetes research and transplant programs.

He has made planned and current-use gifts: An IRA bequest gift of $600,000 supports the Jeffrey Dobbs-David Sutherland Diabetes Research Chair, and this year, he also directed the annual distributions from his IRA support the University’s immunology research in diabetes.

Dankwort jokes that over the years he and Kathryn were “pretty parsimonious,” but that now, “I’m free to spend [money] more generously.”

He says he’s glad to share it with others. “I am very thankful,” Dankwort says, “and I’m showing it in my financial donations.”

By Karin Miller

To support diabetes research at the University of Minnesota, contact Jean Gorell at 612-625-0497 or j.gorell@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Leave a legacy of hope

2012-09-10T16:09:06Z

Your annual gifts supporting research at the University of Minnesota have a real impact on treatments for patients living with disease. Did you know that you can leave a legacy that will make a difference after your lifetime?

When you include a gift in your estate plans to support the University’s research, you provide critical future funding to internationally renowned scientists working to solve the complexities of many types of diseases.

Ways to give

You can support a research fund or project through the Minnesota Medical Foundation by:

Leaving a specified dollar amount or a percentage of your estate in your will or living trust.
Naming the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement plan.
Naming the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy.

Benefits

Gifts from your estate will not affect your current income.
You maintain control of your assets and can modify your plans if your circumstances change.
There may also be significant tax benefits for your estate and your heirs.

Have you already included a gift to us in your estate or financial plans? Please let us know, so that we can ensure your future gift is directed to the programs you wish to support. You can share your gift intentions with us and still remain anonymous.

To discuss the many ways that you can leave a legacy, please contact our gift planning team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

The diabetes-cancer link

2012-08-30T21:52:33Z

University researchers delve deeper into the connection

It has been more than a decade since evidence first emerged linking diabetes to cancer, and what doctors have learned so far is grim: Diabetics are twice as likely to get cancer of the liver, uterus, and pancreas, and they are 20 to 50 percent more likely to develop colon and breast cancer. Women who have breast cancer are almost 50 percent more likely to die if they also have diabetes.

“There’s definitely a proven connection between diabetes and cancer,” says David Potter, M.D., Ph.D., a breast cancer physician and member of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. “But even though we’ve learned a lot, there’s much more work to be done to get us to workable solutions to reduce cancer risk for diabetic patients.”

Potter is currently exploring whether the drug metformin, which is used to treat diabetes, may also keep breast tumors from developing. He hopes that his study, funded by a grant from the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund, will shed more light on the potential of metformin as a breast cancer treatment.

Like Potter, Masonic Cancer Center member Margot Cleary, Ph.D., is intrigued by recent evidence that people with type 2 diabetes who are being treated with metformin seem to have a reduced breast cancer rate. She’s also studying the medication.

“I’m not a cancer person,” says Cleary, a professor at the University’s Hormel Institute in Austin, Minn. “I’m a nutritionist. The springboard for my initial research was the connection between obesity and breast cancer. So in this study, we’re going to get two birds with one stone: We’ll look at how, or if, metformin impacts tumor development in obese mice, and we’ll compare those results to how calorie restriction impacts tumor development.”

Metformin is thought to act in a manner similar to calorie restriction, but the two interventions have not been directly compared, Cleary says.

Her team’s hypothesis? Obesity will accelerate the development of a tumor; restricted-calorie diet will delay the development of a tumor; and metformin will also delay the development of tumors. The group will be monitoring the mice closely to see whether metformin is more effective than calorie restriction in relationship to body weight.

“Metformin is quite nontoxic,” Cleary explains, “so if research can show it also has definite anticancer properties, and if we can identify women at high risk for breast cancer, we could offer them metformin to, hopefully, delay or even deter the development of a tumor.”

Deepali Sachdev, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Pharmacology, comes at the cancer-diabetes problem from a completely different angle. Her group is looking closely at the role of insulin-like growth factors and insulin in breast cancer. Both are hormones that affect cells through the highly related insulin-like growth factor receptor and insulin receptor, which are crucial for controlling glucose levels.

“People with obesity, with high levels of insulin, can have higher incidence of breast cancer,” Sachdev says. “And insulin and insulin receptors definitely affect breast cancer growth and metastases.”

Scientists already know that these two receptors can be present in tumor cells in various combinations, and drugs targeting the receptors are being explored through clinical research. To ensure the successful development of these drugs, however, researchers need to know which combinations of these receptors are present in a person’s tumor.

Enter Sachdev and her team, whose first step was to see if they could get good images of cancer cells in lungs—a challenge because MRI traditionally has not been very effective with lung imaging.

But Sachdev knew she could find some of the world’s top imaging experts just across campus.

“We worked with Michael Garwood [Ph.D.] at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, and his group developed an MRI method to get very good images of the lung,” she says, citing support from the Prospect Creek Foundation. “We were able to clearly show breast tumor cells that had metastasized to the lung. So step one was successful.”

Now Sachdev is in what she calls the “biology phase” of the study, working to combine a special nanoparticle with a molecule that will allow the nanoparticles to home in on tumor cells expressing the insulin-like growth factor receptor.

“This will enhance the sensitivity of the imaging, allowing us to see the metastasized tumor cells that express the receptor,” she explains.

Sachdev hopes that, eventually, tests will be able to identify which combinations of these receptors are in a person’s tumor, allowing oncologists to choose the most effective drug for treatment.

The relationship between cancer and diabetes is complex, and University scientists are confident that the questions they’re out to answer will evolve.

“The timeline for study is forever!” Cleary says. “In a cancer-diabetes study, one answer always leads to another question. If the funding is there, then you move on to try and solve the next challenge.

“That’s the way the work gets done—one small step at a time.”

The power of diet and exercise

It seems doctors just can’t emphasize it enough: “Eat right and exercise often.”

Study after study has shown overwhelming evidence that diet and exercise can have a dramatic effect on whether a person develops diabetes, cancer, and a host of other diseases.

Researchers now know that calorie restriction prevents cancer, says the Masonic Cancer Center’s Margot Cleary, Ph.D., who has been studying the relationship between obesity and cancer for more than 20 years. It has become a standard of care to recommend that women lose weight to decrease their risk of developing breast cancer.

“Exercise and proper diet are critical,” adds David Potter, M.D., Ph.D., a breast cancer physician affiliated with the Masonic Cancer Center. “In fact, exercise-based studies have shown stronger outcomes for cancer than many drug intervention studies.”

He ticks off examples that have reinforced the diet-exercise solution: “Physical activity in breast cancer survivors has been associated with reduction of blood insulin and insulin-like growth factor levels, both of which are linked to breast cancer risk. Recreational activity in the years prior to breast cancer diagnosis has been associated with a significantly lower risk of death for some women with breast cancer. Researchers have also found that eating five or more daily servings of vegetables or fruits combined with regular exercise was associated with improved survival. In yet another study, reduced fat intake decreased risk of relapse in breast cancer patients receiving standard therapy.”

For his own breast cancer patients, Potter recommends regular aerobic exercise and a Mediterranean-style diet low in saturated fats and red meat and high in fruits and vegetables.

He also recommends that his patients avoid alcohol, as high alcohol consumption has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Adds Cleary: “It’s so important to remind people that they can help control their cancer risk just by eating right and exercising.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Endowed funds grant intellectual freedom

2012-06-07T19:54:55Z

Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D., fell in love with the lab almost 40 years ago. She got her first taste of research working for four summers in the University of Minnesota laboratory of William Krivit, M.D., then head of the Department of Pediatrics, on a paid fellowship from the American Heart Association.

“I couldn’t have done this if I hadn’t gotten paid, because my parents had no money,” says the Minneapolis native, now a thriving member of the University faculty. “I had to earn money.”

Those paid fellowships are so rare now, Seaquist says, which is why she feels privileged to return the favor to students today using philanthropic funding from the Pennock Family Land Grant Chair in Diabetes Research, which she has held since 2002. “People need to know their work is valuable,” she says.

The late George and Jevne Pennock created the chair in memory of their daughter, Molly Pennock Eininger Lindeman, who died from complications of diabetes in 1984.

An endowed chair, the pinnacle of faculty achievement, generates flexible annual income that the chair holder can use at his or her discretion. Chair holders often use the funding to explore new ideas, gather preliminary data that may one day attract greater support from the National Institutes of Health, respond quickly to unforeseen research opportunities, or train students and fellows.

Seaquist has used the money from the Pennock Chair for many of these purposes, from paying students who work in her lab to growing a program to a point that she could attract major federal grants.

“It has allowed me to do so many different things,” she says.

But she fears that, without more flexible funding through philanthropy, the future of academic medicine is in jeopardy. Many funding agencies direct their money to one specific project, which can leave investigators scrambling to fill in the gaps between grants and doesn’t allow scientists the freedom to pursue exciting new research tacks.

That’s what makes her endowed chair such an asset, Seaquist says — it provides a steady funding stream that isn’t linked to just one project.

“It’s there to let someone be creative and do the work of a faculty member, which is to discover new knowledge, teach students, and not have to worry every minute about how you’re going to fund your salary and fund your lab,” she says. “It’s been an enormous, enormous blessing to have the endowed funds I’ve had.”

By Nicole Endres

To learn more about how your gift can make a difference in diabetes research, contact Jean Gorell at 612-625-0497 or j.gorell@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/diabetes.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Alumni Spotlight | Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D.

2012-04-19T21:17:55Z

Coming home—and staying put

Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D., chose her career path as a young girl while reading the book series about nurse Sue Barton. “I knew when I read them,” she says with a laugh, “that I wanted to be the doctor.”

So when the Minneapolis Public Schools alumna didn’t get top grades at Vassar College and was subsequently rejected by medical schools everywhere—two years in a row—she was mentally and emotionally preparing to move on. She’d instead go to graduate school and become a special education teacher.

Then Seaquist got a call from the University of Minnesota Medical School’s admissions office notifying her of an error on its part and asking whether she would consider being wait-listed.

Seaquist—who was then working as a researcher in New York City—had no intention of moving back to Minnesota. The oldest of six children who used to share a bedroom with two sisters, she enjoyed being on her own. But she also really wanted to become a physician.

The Medical School officially accepted Seaquist a few days after that phone call. Thirty-four years and an illustrious research career later, she’s still here.

“At every time point where I have thought about moving, and there have been several, Minnesota always offered me amazing opportunities,” says Seaquist, who holds the Pennock Family Chair in Diabetes Research. “This school has been really good to me.”

Asking questions, finding answers

Seaquist’s first taste of research at the University came even before medical school, when she worked for four summers in the laboratory of William Krivit, M.D., then head of the Department of Pediatrics.

Though Seaquist was intrigued by her studies in Krivit’s lab, her true interest in endocrinology and diabetes was sparked by a second-year medical school lecture.

“Why does this problem of high glucose lead to all of these downstream things? How can people end up blind and have kidney failure? What’s happening in the cell in response to this high glucose that’s causing all of these problems? That’s sort of been the theme of everything I’ve done in my research career,” Seaquist explains.

Through the recently wrapped-up ACCORD Study, for instance, Seaquist and colleagues across the country examined whether glucose control was important in reducing diabetics’ risk of heart disease, as it is for reducing eye, nerve, and kidney complications. But it didn’t seem to have a positive effect — in fact, Seaquist says, there may be an increased risk of death for the participants trying to keep their blood sugars normal.

Seaquist is now preparing to enroll patients in another multicenter clinical trial called GRADE that’s aimed at ascertaining which drugs — in addition to the standard metformin — help people with type 2 diabetes maintain normal glucose levels the longest.

While she says these large studies are important for determining the best ways to help patients, Seaquist also likes to take a more independently creative approach to her research. For the last decade, she has partnered with colleagues at the University’s world-renowned Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR ) to study how diabetes and its therapies affect the brain.

At first she studied how the human brain uses glucose “in real time in real life,” using the CMRR’s leading-edge technologies to watch the process in both healthy people and people who have diabetes. Today Seaquist and imaging expert Gülin Öz, Ph.D., are examining how neurotransmitters in the brain’s hypothalamus are altered in people who experience hypoglycemia unawareness, a dangerous complication of diabetes. They also are exploring how a storage form of glucose (known as glycogen) can play a role in providing fuel to the brain when there isn’t enough to perform its usual functions.

A new challenge

What’s next for Seaquist may provide an even bigger challenge. She’s a coleader of the “Decade of Discovery” initiative, a partnership between the University and Mayo Clinic to prevent, optimally treat, and ultimately cure type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

“We view it as an opportunity to conquer diabetes across the state of Minnesota,” says Seaquist, who represents the University on the project’s three-person management team.

The team hopes to accomplish that goal by bringing new knowledge garnered from novel research happening at the University and Mayo to colleagues in the community, whom Seaquist considers the experts on transferring that knowledge into best practice care for patients.

It’s a big project and a huge challenge. But Seaquist is optimistic.

“We’re really going to have an impact on diabetes across the state,” she says.

Good thing for that admissions error, eh?

“It’s horrible not to succeed at something you want to do, but in retrospect, it probably was a good experience,” she says of her initial medical school rejection. “If you don’t really love what you choose to do, you’re not going to be able to deal with the disappointments that come. It has to be well worth it.”

For Seaquist, it is.

By Nicole Endres, managing editor of the Medical Bulletin.

Web Extras

Why research means hope

MPR Diabetes Project

Minnesota Public Radio hosts a five-story series on the burden of diabetes and the hope for a cure.
Learn more.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

U, Mayo partnership steps up efforts to conquer diabetes

2012-04-19T15:53:31Z

The Decade of Discovery, a major initiative of the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, has hired David Etzwiler as executive director and awarded three research grants totaling $1.86 million to bring the initiative closer to its goal: finding a cure for diabetes.

Etzwiler, former vice president of community affairs and executive director of the Medtronic Foundation, will lead the Decade of Discovery’s operations, including strategy development and execution. He also will engage stakeholders inside and outside the Decade’s partner institutions, Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota.

The state-funded grants, awarded by the Decade initiative under the auspices of the Minnesota Partnership, will support research led by University and Mayo Clinic coinvestigators to create an artificial pancreas, develop anti-obesity drugs aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes, and explore immunebased diabetes treatments.

“Using the resources from the Minnesota Partnership, we expect to see major advances in both diabetes treatment and prevention as a result of this work,” says University endocrinologist and Decade coleader Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D.

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is a collaboration of the University, Mayo Clinic, and the state of Minnesota.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Saving cells

2012-03-13T15:03:04Z

An innovative new collaboration pairs diabetes and cancer scientists

Scientist Meri Firpo, Ph.D., spends countless hours in her University of Minnesota lab intensely focused on stem cell research that could lead to a cure for type 1 diabetes.

But sometimes, she says, it’s the ideas that arise outside of the lab—after work—that provide a fresh perspective on research questions and, ultimately, lead to new discoveries.

One of Firpo’s latest diabetes research projects started with a conversation she had at a grad student recruiting party. Thanks to that chat, Firpo and University cancer biologist Anindya Bagchi, Ph.D., are teaming up to find a way to protect insulin-producing beta (or islet) cells—the ones damaged in diabetes.

“We know that in both cases of type 1 and late-stage type 2 diabetes, the cells that make insulin are damaged and die,” Firpo says. “We might be able to find ways to block that cell death.”

Learning from cancer research

Firpo, an assistant professor in the University’s Stem Cell Institute and the Schulze Diabetes Institute, says that the key to her research with Bagchi is determining how cell death occurs and what stops it.

That’s where the cancer research comes in.

“With cancer cells, they don’t die,” says Bagchi. “They keep growing and growing.” So, if cancer illustrates accelerated cell growth, the opposite is accelerated aging—cells dying prematurely, he explains. This is what happens in diabetes.

In type 1 diabetes, a person’s immune system no longer recognizes its own insulin-producing beta cells, which causes T-cells to kill them. In type 2 diabetes, the body becomes resistant to insulin—causing the beta cells to fail.

Using mouse models, Firpo and Bagchi are studying the differences in cellular pathways that are activated in both healthy and dying beta cells. Their goal is to intervene and protect the beta cells.

If the technique proves successful, says Firpo, it could also be used to get beta cells to regenerate—providing an alternative to islet transplantation to treat type 1 diabetes.

“Ultimately, we would rather cure type 1 by getting the beta cells to grow back,” she says. “It would be better for patients if we could get the islets to regenerate instead of [resorting to] transplantation.”

Collaboration is key

Both Firpo and Bagchi say that cross-field collaboration is essential to research success and one of the perks of working at a world-class research University.

“The collaborative opportunity at the University is unbelievable,” Bagchi says. “The signature of a good problem is that it has multiple sides. You have to think non-linearly.”

Interdisciplinary collaboration makes that possible.

Crucial support for early ideas

Firpo’s and Bagchi’s project is so new, that Firpo’s lab is currently paying for it while the scientists seek other funding.

That’s not unusual; the newest, most inventive ideas are often the hardest to fund.

Most major funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), support research that’s much further along and can demonstrate promising early results.

Firpo says her work with Bagchi is not yet at that stage. “This is something that might be higher risk [to fund], because it’s so new, but it could have a larger affect for people,” she says.

That’s why philanthropic support is so crucial, concludes Bagchi. “Even if it’s a small amount of money—it’s so helpful to get funding.”

“If you want to make an impact, you have to shake up the paradigm. If we don’t take risks, we can’t discover,” he says. “That’s where the breakthroughs come.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Lions’ pride

2012-03-13T14:42:11Z

A symbolic partnership aims to solve diabetes

In the wild, lions rely on their prides—communities in the animal kingdom—for protection, food, and other types of support. Members of Minnesota Lions clubs foster a similar sense of community by committing to causes that help others, such as cure-focused diabetes research.

The Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation, Inc. awarded a $50,000 grant last fall to University of Minnesota scientists, expanding the group’s commitment to diabetes research—specifically homing in on the study of kidney disease linked to type 2 diabetes.

Because diabetes is the most common cause of end-stage kidney disease, University researcher Luiza Caramori, M.D., M.Sc., Ph.D., says that if earlier markers of diabetic nephropathy can be found, preventive therapies could target patients at increased risk.

“We are studying the relationships between kidney structure and function in patients with diabetes. One of the goals is to compare these relationships between individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes,” she says.

“The Lions’ gift is a huge help—especially at a time when funding is more and more difficult,” says Caramori. “The Lions’ gift will provide us a rare opportunity to study precious research kidney biopsy materials. Hopefully, by better understanding the mechanisms associated with renal injury in diabetes, we can find ways to prevent and even cure kidney disease caused by diabetes.”

This grant is just one of the many ways the Minnesota Lions have stepped up to support diabetes research at the University.

After learning years ago about the University’s islet transplantation research led by Bernhard Hering, M.D., Duluth Lions Club member Larry Winner says he was energized and thought the Lions should be involved.

The Minnesota Lions went on to make a series of financial contributions to the University’s diabetes research (see the note below), and members also began serving as fundraising ambassadors.

Winner and other Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation trustees traveled around Minnesota and to several clubs in Northwest Ontario, motivating more than 570 Lions clubs to contribute to the University’s diabetes research through pancake events, golf benefits, and more.

In recognition of the group’s support, the MD5M Lions—which includes 676 clubs in Minnesota, Manitoba, and Northwest Ontario—will receive the American Diabetes Association’s Stop Diabetes Act Award in May.

“I’m proud and amazed,” says Winner, now vice chair of the Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation. “Thirteen years ago, I thought, ‘What can I do as one person?’ But it’s been awesome to see how much we could accomplish.”

-Karin Miller

Growth in giving

In 2010, the Lions’ Foundation gave the University $50,000 grant for supplies needed to custom-build islet imaging equipment. That’s in addition to their support for the Spring Point Project, a University research partnership aimed at producing an unlimited source of islets for transplantion.

In 2011, the Lions also made a three-year $250,000 pledge to fund improvements to the University’s islet imaging laboratory, which in April will be named the Minnesota Lions Islet Imaging Laboratory. Look for a story about the impact of this gift in a future issue of Discoveries in Diabetes.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Decade of Discovery

2012-03-13T13:49:57Z

Working to conquer diabetes

The Decade of Discovery, a major initiative of the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, has hired an executive director and awarded three research grants totaling $1.86 million to bring the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic closer to the initiative’s goal: finding a cure for diabetes.

David Etzwiler, the Decade of Discovery’s new executive director, has a background in leadership in the private health care sector, having served as vice president of community affairs and executive director of the Medtronic Foundation. He also has experience securing government funding for large projects.

The state-funded grants awarded by the Partnership will support research led by University and Mayo Clinic co-investigators to create an artificial pancreas, develop anti-obesity drugs aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes, and explore immune-based diabetes treatments—work that will spearhead the Decade of Discovery’s research programs in coming months.

“Using the resources from the Minnesota Partnership, we expect to see major advances in both diabetes treatment and prevention as a result of this works,” says University endocrinologist and Decade of Discovery co-leader Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D.

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is a collaboration of the University, Mayo Clinic, and the state of Minnesota.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

A gift to the U, lifetime income for you

2012-03-13T13:30:01Z

If you would like to support groundbreaking research at the University of Minnesota and also receive steady income for life, a charitable gift annuity may be right for you. Through a simple contract, you agree to make a donation of cash, stocks, or other assets to the Minnesota Medical Foundation. In return, we agree to pay you a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life.

In addition to providing future support for research and receiving lifetime fixed payments, a charitable gift annuity offers additional benefits

•Your gift is partially income tax-deductible.

• Your gift payments are partially income tax- free throughout your estimated life expectancy.

• Your payments are fixed—unaffected by economic ups and downs.

• The gift annuity can be for one or two people, so your spouse or another loved one can also receive payments for life.

• If you use appreciated stock to make your gift, you can eliminate capital gains tax on a portion of the gift; typically, you can spread the rest of the gain over your life expectancy.

To receive a personalized illustration of how a charitable gift annuity can work for you, contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s gift planning team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

SAVE THE DATE: Golf Classic 'fore' Diabetes Research

2012-03-13T12:09:51Z

Mark your calendar for Golf Classic on Monday, June 18 at Town & Country Club in St. Paul.

This event benefits cure-focused type 1 diabetes research at the University of Minnesota’s Schulze Diabetes Institute. Since its inception in 1996, Golf Classic and related efforts have raised nearly $5 million.

For information about participating as a golfer or sponsor, contact Katie Mae Pritchard at 612-625-5682 or kmp@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

SAVE THE DATE: U of M Diabetes Research Update—March 19

2012-02-27T19:37:01Z

Mark your calendar for a University of Minnesota diabetes research update on Monday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church, 8600 East Bush Lake Road in Bloomington, Minn.

The event will feature guest speaker Melena Bellin, M.D., a University of Minnesota pediatric endocrinology fellow and physician, who will discuss leading cure-focused diabetes research.

Please contact David Thoen with questions at DThoen@Deloitte.com.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Standing up to diabetes

2011-12-05T17:41:51Z

Donors’ personal struggles fuel generous gifts to research

The Dayton and Hegman families understand that living with diabetes is a constant struggle. Edward “Ned” Dayton and his wife, Sherry Ann, have helped their son Michael manage his type 1 diabetes since his childhood. He is now 43. And Jackie Hegman and her husband, Mark, have contended with her type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years.

The Daytons and Hegmans also understand that when you’re in a tough spot, you need powerful allies. That’s why the Edward Dayton Family Fund and the Hegman Family Foundation recently contributed $150,000 each to the immunology initiative at the University of Minnesota’s Schulze Diabetes Institute (SDI). The initiative aims to develop a widely available cure for diabetes.

“In the course of my lifetime, I’ve seen polio eradicated and, hopefully, we can see the same for diabetes,” says Ned Dayton, who had polio as a child.

Advancing a cure

In people with type 1 diabetes, islet cells — the makers of insulin in the pancreas — are destroyed. One treatment option is pancreatic islet transplantation, in which cells are taken from a donor pancreas and transferred into the person with diabetes. Once implanted, the new islets begin to make and release insulin.

Islet transplants are already capable of curing diabetes. In fact, the SDI has been curing diabetes in people who have hypoglycemia unawareness (a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes) in clinical trials since 2000. For those people, the transplant benefits outweigh the risks of immunosuppression drugs they must take to protect transplanted islets from rejection.

But that’s not true for many others with type 1 diabetes. For them, the toxic side effects of immunosuppression drugs are not worth the risk of an islet transplant — so the procedure is not widely used. The SDI immunology initiative’s goal is to reduce these side effects, thereby making islet transplantation available to vastly more people with diabetes.

“I think the U is doing a fabulous job — it’s one of the top research institutions,” Dayton says. “The work that they’ve done with transplants is simply extraordinary.”

Spreading the word

Dayton’s earlier careers were in retail and real estate. Now he focuses on supporting philanthropic causes through his family foundation. Dayton also is a member of the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s Diabetes Development Advisory Committee, whose members serve as ambassadors to help further diabetes fundraising efforts at the University of Minnesota.

Hegman focuses on philanthropy after retiring as the owner of a walk-in cooler and freezer manufacturing business. In addition to diabetes research, his family foundation supports a variety of causes, including scholarship funds for students at the University of Minnesota, where Mark went to college, and at Purdue University, which Jackie attended.

“We want to give to causes that make a difference in people’s lives,” Mark Hegman says.

The Hegmans’ generosity is inspired, in part, by Mark’s father, Clyde Hegman. As head of the Minnesota Masons in the 1950s, he spearheaded fundraising to build the Masonic Memorial Hospital on the University of Minnesota campus. Today, the building serves as home to the Masonic Cancer Clinic.

The Hegmans’ support for the SDI’s type 1 diabetes research also stems from their experience dealing with Jackie’s type 2 diabetes. While the origins of the two diabetes types differ, their effects are similar — debilitating, sometimes painful, and difficult to manage. “It’s not easy living with diabetes,” Jackie Hegman says. “We know that, and we want to help.”

Likewise, the Daytons’ support for the institute is rooted in personal experience coping with diabetes. They were also inspired by their friends Tom and Meredith Olson, who are longtime supporters of diabetes research at the University, and by their deep respect for Bernhard Hering, M.D., the SDI’s scientific director, and his team of investigators.

“I think people should be excited about the research going on at the University,” Ned Dayton says. “They’re making great progress.”

By Mary Vitcenda

To support the islet transplant immunology initiative at the University of Minnesota, contact Jean Gorell at 612-625-0497 or j.gorell@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/islet.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Diabetes | Minnesota Medical Foundation

Where stress, diabetes, and culture converge

A UMD study explores the link between stress and high diabetes rates among Native Americans of the Midwest

By Gene Rebeck

Improving Native Americans’ health

Dealing with stress—past and present

Discoveries in Diabetes

Spring 2013

With clinical trials complete, private funds are needed to gain FDA approval for human islet transplants

About Discoveries in Diabetes

Archives

Crossing the finish line

With clinical trials complete, private funds are needed to gain FDA approval for human islet transplants

U of M: A leader in human islet transplantation

The best results

Funding still needed

Help us reach this goal

'A game-changer'

IRA charitable giving opportunity extended for 2013

Building an artificial pancreas

U, Mayo Clinic working to develop a revolutionary treatment

Tackling the sensor problem

The U’s new sensor

Philanthropic support needed

Sutherland wins international award

Gifts of gratitude honor late wife

Husband’s current and planned gifts support U diabetes research

Leave a legacy of hope

Ways to give

Benefits

The diabetes-cancer link

University researchers delve deeper into the connection

The power of diet and exercise

Endowed funds grant intellectual freedom

Alumni Spotlight | Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D.

Coming home—and staying put

Asking questions, finding answers

A new challenge

Web Extras

U, Mayo partnership steps up efforts to conquer diabetes

Saving cells

An innovative new collaboration pairs diabetes and cancer scientists

Learning from cancer research

Collaboration is key

Crucial support for early ideas

Lions’ pride

A symbolic partnership aims to solve diabetes

Growth in giving

Decade of Discovery

Working to conquer diabetes

A gift to the U, lifetime income for you

SAVE THE DATE: Golf Classic 'fore' Diabetes Research

SAVE THE DATE: U of M Diabetes Research Update—March 19

Standing up to diabetes

Donors’ personal struggles fuel generous gifts to research

Advancing a cure

Spreading the word