June 1, 2015--(BRONX, NY)--Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have received a $10.5 million, 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their Diabetes Research Center, which has been newly named the Einstein-Mount Sinai DRC (DRC). The regional collaborative combines Einstein's basic and clinical research strengths with Mount Sinai's beta cell and community outreach expertise. Researchers and clinicians at Montefiore Health System, Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Hunter College, Winthrop-University Hospital, Stony Brook University and NYU Langone Medical Center also participate. This new grant is part of an ongoing NIH effort to encourage multi-institution, regional research centers.
Jeffrey Pessin, Ph.D., the Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Professorial Chair in Diabetes Research at Einstein and principal investigator on the grant, will direct the new multi-institution center. Dr. Pessin, who has led Einstein's DRC for the past seven years, played an integral role in creating the new regional center. For the last several years, he has hosted a diabetes conference that brings together leading diabetes researchers from New York-area medical centers.
"We wanted to keep the conversation going all year long," said Dr. Pessin, who is also professor of medicine and of molecular pharmacology at Einstein. "Our outstanding diabetes-specific core facilities, coupled with a robust and highly interactive research base and strong interactions with Mount Sinai, positioned us to create a regional diabetes research center."
"This multi-institution center will boost diabetes research and care in the New York metropolitan area to a new level," added Andrew Stewart, M.D., Associate Director of the Einstein-Mount Sinai DRC, Director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone disease at Mount Sinai.
With the new regional diabetes grant, "we aim to expand ongoing diabetes and metabolic disease research projects, initiate new research studies and promote advances in research technologies," said Dr. Pessin. "We'll also work to improve the delivery of existing services and develop new services. Collaborations in all these areas will ultimately help speed findings from bench to bedside."
The Einstein-Mount Sinai Diabetes Research Center includes:
- The Einstein Diabetes Center faculty research base
- The Montefiore-Einstein Clinical Diabetes Center
- Diabetes-specific core facilities located at Einstein and Mount Sinai
- A pilot and feasibility grant program to foster new diabetes-related research by faculty at Einstein, Mount Sinai and other participating institutions
- The Global Diabetes Institute, partnered with Christian Medical College, Vellore, India
- The Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- The Mount Sinai Diabetes Center
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29 million in the U.S., or 9.3 percent of the population, have diabetes. An additional 37 percent of Americans aged 20 or older have prediabetes. It is estimated that diabetes costs more than $245 billion a year in both direct medical costs and indirect costs, such as disability, work loss and premature death.
The grant, issued by the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is titled Einstein-Mount Sinai Diabetes Research Center (P30DK02054). The DRC receives additional support from the New York Obesity Research Center (NYORC), the Center for the Study of Diabetic Complications, and the Montefiore Clinical Diabetes Center.
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About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2014-2015 academic year, Einstein is home to 742 M.D. students, 212 Ph.D. students, 102 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 292 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 2,000 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2014, Einstein received $158 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Through its extensive affiliation network involving Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center--Einstein's founding hospital, and three other hospital systems in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island, Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States. For more information, please visit http://www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services--from community?based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.
The System includes approximately 6,600 primary and specialty care physicians, 12?minority?owned free?standing ambulatory surgery centers, over 45 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, as well as 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health funding and by U.S. News & World Report.
For more information, visit mountsinai.org, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.