3 January Happy New Year From The DRC January 3, 2017 By The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center 0 The FOE Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa wishes you a heartfelt Happy New Year! Our ongoing commitment and resolution to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the entire community is to continue research aimed at bettering the lives of all who live with diabetes and to rigorously search for ways to cure or reverse the alarming increase in diabetes across the world. An excellent example of this commitment is seen in the recent work of Dr. Ajit Vikram and Kaikobad Irani whose work provides new insights into how the bacteria in our gut can lead to blood vessel damage that characterizes diabetes. Diabetes significantly increases the risk for heart attacks and stroke. FOEDRC researchers Dr. Ajit Vikram and Kaikobad Irani recently published an important paper in the Journal Nature Communications that provides new understanding of why blood vessel inflammation and damage occurs in subjects at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Their work discovered a previously undiscovered interaction between bacteria in the gut, which had previously been implicated in diabetes risk, and cardiovascular complications. The trillions of bacteria that colonize the gut play multiple roles in health and disease. Certain forms of gut bacteria promote diabetes, lead to weight gain, and also play an important part in heart disease. Their work illustrates a new mode of communication between bacteria in the gut and blood vessels, and how this communication leads to malfunction of blood vessels that can eventually precipitate plaque build-up and lead to heart disease. The gut bacteria signal through the blood stream to change expression of a class of small RNAs, termed microRNAs in the wall of the blood vessel. These microRNAs then target genes that maintain vascular health. Thus, this remote yet intricate communication between the gut and blood vessels impairs normal and healthy functioning of these vessels. These studies add to the growing body of information linking the bacteria in our guts with obesity, diabetes and its complications. Thank you for your continued support and partnership. We look forward to working with you in the years to come. All the very best for 2017 Related Articles Experience NASCAR From The Pits! Sign new members for the Fraternal Order of Eagles and you could earn a chance to earn pit passes to an upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup race! The F.O.E. will be holding a series of membership contents in correlation with the remaining races in which the Eagles will be featured as a major associate sponsor. The Aerie and Auxiliary member with the most proposed members during the designated period in an eligible state will each receive two pit passes to the race. Eagles Celebrate 120 Years of Community Service On February 6, The Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) celebrates 120 years of community service. The F.O.E. began in 1898, when six Seattle-area theater owners came together to share their passion for social progress and a dedication to philanthropy with the greater community. 120 years later, the F.O.E. continues to work hard to bring citizens together in the name of bettering communities and raising funds to assist friends and neighbors in need. From the creation of Mother’s Day, Social Security and Medicare to the hundreds of millions of dollars donated to various research and assistance organizations across North America, no life has been left untouched by the actions of an Eagle. DRC Researcher Sah Awarded Grant From ADA Rajan Sah, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine Cardiology Division and member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center was recently awarded a Research Grant from the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The project entitled: SWELL1 regulation of ß-cell excitability and insulin secretion will be supported by the $345,000 award over the next three years. Also, this leading edge experimentation was published in the January issue of Nature Communication. Merry Christmas from Carl & Althea Brothers and Sisters, It’s the giving season - what better way to celebrate the holidays than by putting that charitable energy back into your community. As we celebrate the holidays with our beloved family and friends, we should take the time to reflect on the charitable acts that took place in 2018. Throughout the 2017 and 2018 fraternal year, more than $3,600,000 was donated to the Charity Foundation. Which is an impressive feat that exemplifies your hard work and selfless dedication to helping others. Casey Receives Grant Funding from American Diabetes Association Congratulations to Darren Casey, PhD, assistant professor of physical therapy and rehabilitation science, for recently receiving the American Diabetes Association Innovative Clinical or Translational Science Award. For his proposal entitled - Nitrate supplementation and exercise tolerance in patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Dr. Casey received this award after a National Competition that selected a fraction of the most meritorious proposals. DRC Receives $2.02 Million Training Grant From National Institutes of Health I am pleased to share with you that Dr. E. Dale Abel, Director of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center (FOEDRC) and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, and Dr. Andrew (Andy) Norris, FOEDRC’s Associate Director, have just been awarded a five-year, $2.02M training grant from the National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The T32 grant will fund the Diabetes Research Training Program at the University of Iowa and will support up to six post-doctoral trainees or subspecialty fellows per year. The grant will support existing trainees or support the recruitment of outstanding new trainees to the University of Iowa. Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.