Grant Aims to Help Researchers Stem Diabetes Epidemic
Nearly 19,000 children and teens are diagnosed with diabetes each year according to U.S.A. Today. With the help of a recently awarded, two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers at Hasbro Children’s Hospital hope to find new strategies for the treatment and prevention of this disease.
The NIH grant was awarded to Rachel A. Altura, MD, pediatric researcher at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Altura and colleagues will study the biology and possible genetic causes of diabetes.
“As obesity rates rise, so will the incidence of diabetes unless we find new and innovative ways to not only treat this disease, but also prevent it,” says Altura. “I hope our research can help unlock some of the potential genetic causes of diabetes and identify new therapeutic options that may someday stem the tide of diabetes in this country.”
Altura will study the molecular mechanisms that play a role in the progression of diabetes, including decreases in the mass of cells that make and release insulin, which also have a hand in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. She will also investigate why the rates of type 2 diabetes have been increasing in young children.
“The cost to treat diabetes is staggering and places a heavy burden on our nation’s health care system,” says Aaron Friedman, MD, pediatrician-in-chief at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. “We must start looking for novel answers to this diabetes crisis, and research like Dr. Altura’s takes us one step in the right direction.”
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