American Diabetes Association Researcher Honored by Discovery Health Channel

---

Orlando, Florida, June 4, 2004 — The country’s most innovative and influential leaders in the health care community will join Discovery Health Channel for the inaugural Discovery Health Channel Medical Honors to celebrate the nation’s premier health and medical pioneers of the 21st Century for their remarkable discoveries and lifesaving contributions to the field of medicine.

In one rare evening and one remarkable televised event, Discovery Health Channel will honor those unsung individuals and organizations dedicated to improving and protecting health around the world. The unprecedented Hollywood-style Honors, in association with the National Health Museum, will be held June 23 at D.A.R. Constitution Hall and hosted by famed TV personality and talk show host, Regis Philbin. Discovery Health Channel will broadcast the event on July 8.

“Our goal is for the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honors to do for the health and medical community what the Kennedy Center Honors does for the arts,” said Billy Campbell, President of Discovery Networks, U.S. “There is no better place to celebrate the most extraordinary breakthroughs in medicine than in the Nation’s Capital and on the only network devoted to health and medicine.”

A total of 13 Honors will be bestowed, including the Discovery Health Channel International Honor in special recognition of contributions made outside of the United States. The Honorees were nominated by the country’s leading health care organizations including:

Partnering Organizations:

• American Academy of Pediatrics

• American Cancer Society

• American Diabetes Association

• American Heart Association

• American Hospital Association

• American Lung Association

• Biotechnology Industry Organization

• Consumer Healthcare Products Association

• The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

Honoree confirmations were made by the event’s Advisory Board, which includes high-ranking public health officials as well as leaders from academia and the medical community, including former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop and former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler.

Among the award recipients, is Dr. Raghu Mirmira, assistant professor in the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Virginia.  Dr. Mirmira received a $912,000 grant over five years from the American Diabetes Association to investigate how insulin-producing cells form.  Mirmira then hopes to use this knowledge to try and convert other cell types into insulin-producing cells.

Research into the molecular defects underlying diabetes reveals that all forms of the disease result at some level from the impaired ability of pancreatic beta cells to produce sufficient insulin.  “Through this generous grant form the ADA, we will characterize in detail the chromatin structure of the insulin gene within the nucleus of different types of cells,” Mirmira said.  “Subsequently, we want to determine how the structure of the insulin gene changes as precursor cells develop into beta cells.  We anticipate these studies may ultimately allow us to intervene, when insulin production stops, by remodeling the chromatin in non-beta cells, making them more capable of insulin production.”

In fact, Mirmira’s grant application so impressed scientists at the American Diabetes Association that they decided to give him the Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award, given annually to the highest scoring Career Development Award applicant.

“This year, we are delighted that this prestigious award will go to a young investigator, Dr. Raghu Mirmira, who is examining the development of insulin-producing cells within the pancreas,” said Eugene J. Barrett, MD, PhD, president of the American Diabetes Association.  “These studies promise to provide important information defining the molecular signals by which insulin-producing cells normally come into being.  As these signals are identified, they will provide the basis of work to expand the availability of insulin-producing cells.”  Barrett said this research supported by the ADA will be important to discovering how insulin secretion is impaired in both type 1 and 2 diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association is the nation’s premier voluntary health organization supporting diabetes research, information and advocacy.  Founded in 1940, the Association has offices in every region of the country, providing services to hundreds of communities. 

The Association’s commitment to research is reflected through its scientific meetings; education and provider recognition programs; and its Research Foundation and Nationwide Research Program, which fund breakthrough studies looking into the cure, prevention, and treatment of diabetes and its complications.  For more information, please visit www.diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383). Information from both these sources is available in English and Spanish.

Discovery Health Channel Medical Honors is the first-ever televised salute of the nation’s most influential and innovative health care leaders. Discovery Health Channel will bring together under one roof the country’s leading health organizations to honor the health care providers, medical institutions and clinical researchers who have made breakthroughs, lifesaving discoveries and other contributions to the field of medicine. The gala event will be held June 23 at D.A.R Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and Novartis is the Presenting Sponsor of the event. The two-hour program will be broadcast July 8 at 8PM ET/PT on Discovery Health Channel.