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DRC Director's Report - July 2020

The greatest risks to long-term health in people with diabetes arise from diabetic complications, particularly cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanisms by which the metabolic changes associated with type 2 diabetes like insulin resistance increases the risk of heart failure are less understood. In a recent publication in JCI Insight, E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD, and other members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center in collaboration with other institutions, have uncovered an important molecular link between diabetes and heart failure.

DRC Director's Report - June 2020

FOEDRC members Al Klingelhutz, PhD, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Radiation Oncology and James Ankrum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, have received funding as part of the Iowa Superfund Research Program (ISRP). As co-directors of 1 of the 5 projects, “Role of Airborne PCBs in Adipogenesis, Adipose Function, and Metabolic Syndrome”, they will focus on how the environmentally prevalent toxin PCB ) (polychlorinated biphenyls) accumulation in fat affects the development of obesity, fatty liver disease, and type II diabetes. The ISRP, headed by Keri Hornbuckle, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will receive a total of $11.4 million over a 5-year period to continue its research on polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and the impact they have on human health.

DRC Director's Report - May 2020

Diabetes is a disease of uncontrollable high blood glucose. Insulin, the hormone that reduces blood glucose, is secreted from beta cells embedded in the pancreas in structures called islets. Although overnutrition has been blamed for the inability of beta cells to secrete enough insulin in type 2 diabetes, it has remained unclear how overnutrition causes beta cells to fail. This is a critical question to solve in order to develop effective therapy to protect beta cells in conditions of overnutrition and to cure type 2 diabetes.

Eagles, Iowa Formalize Bridge To The Cure Project

On Tuesday, October 30, The Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) Board of Grand Trustees met with leadership from the University of Iowa to formalize the F.O.E.'s Bridge to the Cure project, which aims to translate research projects at the F.O.E. Diabetes Research Center into new medications to help alleviate the effects of diabetes.

With the new agreement, the F.O.E. Diabetes Research Center staff, led by Director Dr. E. Dale Abel, will form a committee, including one Eagles member, to recommend research projects for trial drug testing. Once a recommendation is made, it will be passed along to the F.O.E.'s Board of Grand Trustees, who will determine whether or not to issue a grant from the F.O.E. Diabetes Research Center Fund to facilitate the trials.