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BBDC Newsletter

BBDC NEWS   Vol. 10, No. 3 -- March 2010

WEB SITE

BBDC ANNUAL REPORT FOR JULY 1, 2008 TO JUNE 30, 2009

The BBDC’s annual report for the year ending June 30, 2009 is now available on the BBDC’s web site at http://www.bbdc.org/annualReport/index.htm.  The comprehensive report includes a financial statement of operations which details how our funds are generated and spent in support of diabetes research, training and education.  The report also describes the Centre’s funding programs, lists the year’s award recipients, and highlights the educational activities hosted by the BBDC during the 2008/09 year.

UPCOMING EVENTS

BBDC SEMINAR SERIES

The BBDC hosts diabetes-related seminars which are held in conjunction with City-wide Endocrine Rounds. The seminars are held on selected Friday mornings from 8 to 9 a.m. at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Lebovic Building, 60 Murray Street, 3rd floor conference room.  Faculty wishing to meet with the visiting speaker should contact the BBDC at diabetes.bbdc@utoronto.ca .  The next speaker will be:

April 23, 2010

 Translating Insights From Human Genetics Into New Therapies For Dyslipidemia
Daniel J. Rader, MD
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

U OF T DIABETES AND ENDOCRINOLOGY UPDATE FOR FAMILY PHYSICIANS 2010

The University of Toronto’s Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism together with the Banting & Best Diabetes Centre will be hosting the first  U of T Diabetes and Endocrinology Update for Family Physicians on Friday, April 30, 2010 at 89 Chestnut Street Conference Centre in Toronto.  The Update is an accredited, full-day continuing medical education course for family physicians.  The program will consist of plenary lectures plus interactive workshops designed to facilitate the use of insulin in primary care.  Diabetes and endocrine topics will include: selection of oral anti-diabetic medications; partnering with allied health professionals to improve efficiency of diabetes management; updates on osteoporosis and thyroid disease; new lipid guidelines; managing polycystic ovarian syndrome; BP and lipid targets; and much more.  In order to ensure maximum interaction, registration will be limited to approximately 50 family physicians.  For the complete program and on-line registration, please go to the Continuing Education and Professional Development web page at http://events.cmetoronto.ca/website/index/MED1021 . The course code for this event is MED1021.

21ST ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC DAY

Our 21st Annual Scientific Day will be held on Friday, May 14, 2010 at The Old Mill Inn, Toronto.  The event is open to all BBDC members and their trainees.  U of T endocrine residents are also welcome to attend.  This year's Charles Hollenberg Memorial Lectureship will be presented by Dr. Alan Saltiel from the University of Michigan whose presentation is entitled Exploring Inflammatory Links Between Diabetes and Obesity.  The program will also include University of Toronto faculty and staff Drs. Richard Gilbert, David Jenkins, Tony Lam, Yi Sun and Derek van der Kooy.  BBDC postdoctoral fellowship and graduate studentship recipients will present posters of their work and winners of the Annual Trainee Awards competition will be announced.  There is no fee to attend; however, registration is required by Wednesday, April 28.  The complete program and registration form are available at http://www.bbdc.org/pdf/SciDay2010.pdf .  We look forward to seeing you on May 14.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The University of Toronto has announced a suspension of payments, effective April 2009, for income that would normally flow from endowed investments.  Since the vast majority of BBDC annual funding comes from endowment income, this poses a huge challenge for the Centre, namely how to try and continue operations while faced with a crippling cessation of funding that normally flows from our endowments. Due to the significant loss of income, we may make changes to the Centre's funding programs until the current fiscal challenges subside.  Changes may affect the number of programs offered, the number of awards disbursed, and/or the dollar value of individual awards.

TRAINEE TRAVEL AWARDS 2009/2010 (PERIOD 2)
FOR TRAVEL OCCURRING BETWEEN JANUARY 1 AND JUNE 30, 2010

Awards of up to $1,000 (Canadian) are available to trainees who will be traveling to a national or international meeting between January 1 and June 30, 2010 to present a first-author abstract.  The content of the abstract must be directly related to an area of diabetes research.  To be eligible, applicants must be registered graduate students, post-doctoral or clinical fellows conducting diabetes research at the University of Toronto or one of its affiliated institutions.  The trainee’s supervisor must hold a full-time faculty appointment with the University of Toronto and must also be a registered member* of the BBDC at the time of application submission.   The deadline for receipt of applications is 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 30, 2010.  For complete award details and application instructions please see the following web page: http://www.bbdc.org/fundingOpp/travel.htm .

GRADUATE STUDENTSHIPS 2010/2011

The Banting and Best Diabetes Centre is accepting applications for the following graduate studentships: 
   1) BBDC-Novo Nordisk Studentships (OSOTF)
   2) Yow Kam-Yuen Graduate Scholarship in Diabetes Research (OSOTF)
   3) Tamarack Graduate Award in Diabetes Research (OSOTF)
   4) BBDC-University Health Network Graduate Awards

Students need only submit one application to be considered for all awards.  To be eligible to apply, the applicant must be a registered full-time graduate student in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto by August 31, 2010, and must be carrying out studies in diabetes research.  The applicant must be either a Canadian citizen or have permanent residence status in Ontario by August 31, 2010.  The student's supervisor must hold a full-time faculty appointment with the University of Toronto and must also be a registered member* of the BBDC at the time of application submission.  Supervisors may submit a maximum of 2 applications for this competition.  The deadline for receipt of applications is 5 p.m., Tuesday, June 1, 2010.  For complete details of each award and application instructions, please see the following web page: http://www.bbdc.org/fundingOpp/index.htm.

(OSOTF = Ontario Students Opportunity Trust Fund)

SALLY & PAUL wANG DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

This award is administered by the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME).  The IBBME is now accepting applications for the new Sally and Paul Wang Distinguished Graduate Scholarship Award. One scholarship is awarded annually to a full-time graduate student who has demonstrated financial need and has established outstanding academic and extra-curricular leadership.  To be eligible, applicants must be registered full-time degree students and in good standing in the second or third year of a doctoral program at the University of Toronto at the time of application.  Preference will be given to students who are registered in the IBBME, and/or supervised or co-supervised by a member of the School of Graduate Studies faculty who is also a staff member in the IBBME or member of the BBDC, or students working in the area of diabetic research.  For complete award details and application instructions see the IBBME web site at http://www.ibbme.utoronto.ca/programs/graduate/funding/internal.htm.  For further information, contact IBBME Student Services at (416) 978-4841 or at admissions.ibbme@utoronto.ca.

* Those who are new to the field of diabetes research, education or care and are not members of the BBDC can request free membership by contacting the Centre prior to submitting an application. For more information about BBDC Membership, please view the MEMBERSHIP section of our web site at http://www.bbdc.org/membership/index.htm .

AWARD RESULTS**

CHARLES HOLLENBERG SUMMER STUDENTSHIP PROGRAM 2010

Award Recipient Supervisor Title of Research

Rafal Ahmad

Dr. Thomas Wolever

 The Relationship Between Obesity and Gut Microbiota Composition

Ausma Ahmed

Dr. Bruce Perkins

 Corneal Nerve Fiber Length as a Biomarker of Early Neuropathy – A 1-year Prospective Study

Cynthia Chan

Dr. Qinghua Wang

 Insulin action on regulation of glucagon secretion: a strategy using pancreas perfusion.

Simon Chiang

Dr. Adria Giacca

 Potential treatments of restenosis with insulin sensitizers

Elise Crocker

Dr. Jonathan Rocheleau

 Ex vivo pancreatic islets culture on a microfluidic device

Meghan Deforest

Dr. Jill Hamilton

 Ectopic fat distribution and metabolic risk in overweight youth

Feng Ding

Dr. Maria Rozakis Adcock

 Novel Genetic Animal Models of PHIP1

Xiao (Charlotte) Dong

Dr. Patricia Brubaker

 Role of fatty acid transport proteins in oleic acid-induced glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion.

David Kepecs

Dr. Richard Gilbert

 Endothelial Progenitor Cells: A Novel Therapy For Diabetic Kidney Disease

Lemieux Luu

Dr. Michael Wheeler

 The role of SIRT1 in pancreatic beta cells

Prital Patel

Dr. Jim Woodgett

 Investigating the effects of GSK-3 alpha and beta in primary adipocytes: assessing the differentiation potential of pre-adipocytes using GSK-3alpha and beta floxed animal models.

Matthew Purser

Dr. Denise Belsham

 The Role of CNTF and Proglucagon-Derived Peptides in the Control of Energy Homeostasis

Laetitia Tam

Dr. Dominic Ng

 The role of cellular cholesterol in the regulation of ER stress and glucose metabolism in a genetic model of low HDL

Dawei David Wang

Dr. Michelle Bendeck

 Investigating the function of Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 (Ddr1) during atherosclerotic plaque development

Chester Yao

Dr. I. George Fantus

 The role of the tyrosine kinase Src in diabetes nephropathy

DENNIS SCHOLAR IN DIABETES RESEARCH 2010-2012

Award Recipient Title of Research Amount

Dr. Carolyn Cummins

 Role of the Liver X Receptors in Diabetic Nephropathy $10,000 for 2010/2011 and
$10,000 for 2011/2012

DIABETES EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD 2009

The award will be presented to the recipient at the Toronto Diabetes Association Annual Meeting to be held on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at the Mount Sinai Hospital Auditorium, Toronto.

Award Recipient Profession and Hospital Affiliation Amount

Ms. Carolyn Lawton

 Nurse Practitioner, Diabetes
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto		 $1,000

** An essential condition of all BBDC programs is the acknowledgement of BBDC support, where appropriate, in all publications relevant to the BBDC-supported research program. Failure to appropriately acknowledge the BBDC’s support in relevant publications will be considered grounds for suspending future eligibility for BBDC funding programs.

BBDC CORE LABORATORY

The BBDC Core Laboratory provides analytical and technical support to the University of Toronto diabetes research community.  A wide range of research quality assays are provided for investigator initiated clinical or basic research as well as for industry sponsored trials. Please see the Core Laboratory section of the BBDC’s web site at http://www.bbdc.org/laboratories/index.htm for a complete description of assays and services currently available.

BBDC Membership is free and open to individuals involved in full or part-time diabetes research, education, and patient care who are employed at the University of Toronto or its affiliated institutions (examples: scientists, physicians, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and other allied health care professionals).  Staff at both fully and partially affiliated institutions are eligible to apply for membership. For more information about BBDC Membership, please view the MEMBERSHIP section of our web site at http://www.bbdc.org/membership/index.htm.

BBDC News is published in September, December, March and June of each year.
Current and past issues are available on our website.

DIRECTOR: DANIEL J. DRUCKER, MD, FRCPC
Banting & Best Diabetes Centre
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Located at the Toronto General Hospital
200 Elizabeth Street
Eaton Building, 12th Floor, Room 12E248
Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C4
Phone: (416) 978-4656 • Fax: (416) 978-4108
E-mail: diabetes.bbdc@utoronto.ca • Website: www.bbdc.org