Research Excellence

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The Thomas R. Lee Award

The Thomas R. Lee Award goes to the Career Development Award applicant who receives the highest reviewer score on his/her application in a given fiscal year. The award not only recognizes excellence in diabetes research, but also signifies the ADA's belief that the recipient will continue to be a premier researcher who will have great impact in diabetes treatment, prevention or in the search for a cure.

The Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award is funded in full by the Estate of Mr. Thomas R. Lee of Norfolk, Virginia. For most of his life, Mr. Lee was a successful land owner and property developer in and around his beloved hometown of Norfolk. Known by all for his skilled business sense, dedication to friends and tremendous kindness to others, he generously supported the causes for which he was most passionate. Inspired by his personal battle with diabetes, Mr. Lee made sure that a charitable portion of his estate went to the American Diabetes Association upon his death.

Currently-Funded Winners of the Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award include Jianhua Shao, PhD (2007), Zheng-Gen Jin, PhD (2006), Keyong Du, PhD (2005), and Raghavendra Mirmira, MD, PhD (2004).

Previously-Funded Award Winners include:

2003 -- Vincent Poitout, DVM, PhD, Pacific Northwest Research Institute

           “Mechanisms of Fatty-Acid Potentiation of Insulin Secretion”

2002 -- Louis Ragolia, PhD, Winthrop University Hospital

           “The Molecular Basis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis”

The Gail Patrick Innovation Award

Christopher Saudek, MD, of the Johns Hopkins University, has been named the winner of the Summer/Fall 2007 Gail Patrick Innovation Award for his project, “Test of a Unique Isotopic Biomarker for Studies of Obesity and Diabetes”.  

This award, named in honor of Gail Patrick, the legendary Motion Picture actress and first national chair of the ADA Board of Directors, is given to the Innovation Award applicant receiving the best reviewer score in a given fiscal year.   Prestigious awardees receive $50,000 per year for two years to support an innovative idea that advances the Association’s efforts to prevent, treat and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by the disease.

Teresa Paula DiLorenzo, PhD, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Winter/Spring 2007 Award winner, is also currently being supported for her research, “Pharmacologic Repression of an Autoantigen Gene in Type 1 Diabetes”.

Previous award winners include:

2006-- Pamela Jean Fink, PhD, University of Washington,

           “Induction of Tolerance to    Pancreatic Antigens in Recent Thymic Emigrants”

2006-- Anthony Carruthers, PhD,

           “Can we Prevent HIV-protease inhibitor-Induced Insulin Resistance by Understanding
            GLUT4 Inhibition?”

2005-- Steven M. Tracy, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center

           “Coxsackievirus Induction of Insulitis in Yound NOD Mice”

Forefront

Read more about these and other ADA Research Awardees in the latest issue of Forefront, the American Diabetes Association's research magazine featuring the cutting-edge ADA-funded research taking place across the nation.