Diabetes Program
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Craig Stump, MD, PhD, (center) is interim director for the UA Diabetes Research Program and associate professor of medicine. Also pictured, UA BIO5 Institute researchers (from left) George Tsaprailis and Serrine Lau.
Diabetes Research Program
Seeking Breakthroughs in Diabetes
An epidemic of diabetes, obesity, and related cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases is sweeping across the state of Arizona as well as the nation. Arizona has a unique environment that may not present anywhere else in the world. The physicians and research investigators here, combined with the populations in this state, create an unprecedented opportunity to make tremendous advancements in the treatment and understanding of diabetes.
If untreated or inadequately treated, diabetes leads to kidney failure, blindness, amputations, heart disease and stroke. The benefits from a comprehensive program are of a magnitude rarely possible in medicine – even a 10 percent reduction in the incidence of diabetes and its complications would result in savings of billions of dollars and major decreases in morbidity and mortality. Medical breakthroughs in this area are critical to making Arizona a healthier state and improving patient outcomes throughout the nation.
Diabetes Facts
- Diabetes is the sixth-deadliest disease in the United States, according to the Diabetes Research Institute.
- About 23.6 million Americans (7.8% percent of the population) have the disease.
- The economic burden is more than $174 billion per year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Diabetes Association.
- In Arizona, diabetes is particularly devastating. Mexican-Americans, the largest Hispanic/Latino subgroup, are 1.7 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites, according to the National Diabetes Information Clearing House. Native Americans are 2.2 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. A growing number of retired and elderly in the region add to the magnitude of this disease.
Diabetes Research Program at the UA College of Medicine
A Statewide Effort to Fight Diabetes
Launched in 2006 in collaboration with the directors of the UA Sarver Heart Center, Gordon Ewy, MD, and Carol Gregorio, PhD, the UA’s Diabetes Research theme brings together the expertise and skills of physicians, scientists and allied health professionals into a comprehensive and complementary diabetes research effort.
Craig Stump, MD, PhD, is the interim director for the Diabetes Research Program, section chief for endocrinology, metabolism and hypertension and associate professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine at the UA College of Medicine. His laboratory investigates the contribution of physical inactivity, obesity and insulin resistance to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and related co-morbidities.
UA Diabetes Research Program faculty members include the following:
- Janis Burt, PhD, professor in the Department of Physiology, studies the role of gap junctions to heart and vascular cell growth, communication and response to injury or diseases such as diabetes.
- Heddwen Brooks, PhD, associate professor of physiology, is investigating the role of menopause and sex-related hormones on diabetes, particularly how these impact diabetic kidney disease.
- Betsy Dokken, NP, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, is studying the effects of diabetes on heart function and recovery from injury. Her recent work investigates how gastrointestinal tract hormones or their pharmaceutical analogs may protect heart cells from damage.
- Janet Funk, MD, research associate professor in the Department of Medicine, studies the efficacy of botanicals in inflammatory processes and the emerging link between metabolic diseases such as diabetes and osteoporosis.
- Erik Henriksen, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Physiology and an expert in skeletal muscle insulin resistance in diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. He currently is investigating the contribution of glycogen synthase kinase-3 to insulin resistance and the effects of inhibiting this system, thereby improving muscle glucose metabolism.
- Ronald Lynch, PhD, professor in the Department of Physiology, investigates how energy metabolism is integrated with function in nutrient-sensing cells and cells of the vasculature. These studies relate directly to understanding the development of diabetes and its many complications.
- Leslie Ritter, RN, PhD, a professor from the Department of Neurology and the UA College of Nursing, studies the damaging effects of high-circulating glucose upon cerebral vascular tissues and determines mechanisms by which people with diabetes suffer more severe brain injuries after a stroke.
- Alexander Simon, PhD, associate professor of physiology, studies the role of intracellular channels made up of connexin proteins and how these channels impact heart and blood vessel development and function.
- Tsu-Shuen Tsao, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry, is working to understand the molecular, cellular and whole-body physiological basis of obesity and the metabolic adaptations that develop in response to this condition, particularly with regard to the structure and function of hormones derived from fat cells.
- Jeffery Walker, PhD, professor of physiology, studies how a variety of stimuli including hormones, growth factors and mechanical stress affect cardiac myocyte protein kinase C-dependent pathways and contribute to cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure associated with diabetes.
- Stephen Wright, PhD, professor in the Department of Physiology, investigates the intricate tubular system of the kidney and the organic electrolytes from dietary or pharmaceutical sources transported across tubular cell membranes.
Contact Us
For more information, please contact us:
Diabetes Research Program at The University of Arizona College of Medicine
Medical Research Building
PO Box 245218
Tucson, AZ 85724
(520) 626-3709
diabetes@medcenter.arizona.edu
In addition to our connection with the Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building, home to BIO5, our research faculty serve as physicians and professors at University Medical Center, UPH Hospital and the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System.
Donations in support of the Diabetes Research Program can be made through the UA College of Medicine Development Office, (520) 626-2827.
