At $2.2 Million, UAB Diabetes Research Initiative Tops One-Third Mark

UAB has received a gift of more than $1.5 million to help establish a Comprehensive Diabetes Center. The donation will be used to fund an endowed chair to recruit and retain a premier researcher to serve as director of the center.

The gift — from Nancy Gwaltney of Alexander City, Alabama — represents the initiative's single largest contribution to date, pushing the campaign over the one-third mark toward its goal of $6.5 million. It will be used to establish the Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Juvenile Diabetes Research. UAB has committed to match private funds with an additional $6.5 million in space in the Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, now under construction.

"This wonderful gift, along with others received thus far, reflects the community's deep recognition that UAB is a world frontrunner in the race to find a cure," UAB President Carol Z. Garrison, PhD, says.

"The UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center director will take the lead in developing a world-class facility for the research and treatment of diabetes, taking advantage of the excellent research and clinical programs already in place at UAB,""she adds.

Among the other gifts are $100,000 from the Junior League of Greater Birmingham and $50,000 from the Crippled Children's Foundation, Dr. Garrison says.

UAB's diabetes initiative was announced almost a year ago. At the same time, the university announced its intent to transplant insulin-producing cells into diabetics. Three patients have been transplanted successfully since then.

"Our clinical goal is to continue these transplants and eventually to institute changes to allow them to be performed with 'transplant tolerance' — without the requirement of medications to suppress the immune system," William J. Koopman, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine says. He adds that UAB has one of the world's top transplant-tolerance research programs.

The fund-raising campaign is a partnership between UAB and community leaders interested in finding a cure for diabetes. David Silverstein and Benny LaRussa are chairing the community effort. Both are parents of children with type 1 diabetes.