DATE: Wednesday, May 21, 1997               TAG: 9705210002

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

GENE DISCOVERY AT EVMS HOPE FOR DIABETICSTHE DIABETES INSTITUTE' RESEARCH MAY PRODUCE A CURE FOR DIABETES IN HUMANS AS IT HAS IN LABORATORY ANIMALS.

That the cure for diabetes may well come out of the Diabetes Institutes at Eastern Virginia Medical School is cause for cheer. Disclosure of that possibility stimulated spirit-lifting headlines and network-television reports earlier this month.

After 15 years of effort, Diabetes Institutes' research director, South Africa-born Aaron I. Vinik, M.D. and Ph.D., and his team (some members of which are at McGill University in Montreal), identified the gene that appears to be key to regenerating islet cells in the pancreas to produce insulin. Molecular biologist Scott Barlow, a research associate, named the gene Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein. Its acronym, INGAP, could become famous.

The gene and the processes it triggers are detailed in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, in an article by Dr. Vinik and his colleagues. As is customary, a panel of scientists scrutinized the treatise before publication.

Nobel Prizes for medicine are awarded for breakthroughs that revolutionize understanding of diseases. EVMS and McGill University already have won a major award, so to speak, for their discovery: The schools will benefit from their fresh research partnership with the multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company. Eli Lilly will aid the research financially and pay royalties from sales of any products flowing from the discovery.

Eastern Virginia Medical School is young; it began training physicians-to-be in 1973. It was not a decade old when it garnered international attention with the birth of Elizabeth Carr, the first in-vitro-fertilization baby born outside of Great Britain.

That was in 1981. EVMS' Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine provided the expertise and skill that enabled Elizabeth Carr to be conceived and born. The number of Jones Institute-facilitated births nears 2,000.

The institute is a renowned center of reproductive medicine and research. Genetic screening of pre-embryos by the institute resulted in the birth in 1994 of a healthy Brittany Abshire, whose parents carried the gene that causes Tay-Sachs disease. Like Elizabeth Carr, Brittany Abshire was big news.

A million-dollar donation from Cosmopolitan Club International in 1984 established diabetes education at EVMS. A million-dollar gift from Hampton Roads businessman Leonard Strelitz formally established the Diabetes Institutes in 1987. The institutes conduct research and treat patients - some 1,500 a month. Of the institutes' $4 million annual budget, $1.6 million goes for research. The institutes' revenue comes from contributors, foundations, grants, endowment.

Diabetes creates chronic, disabling complications and shortens lives. Sixteen million Americans are diabetic; 116,000 live in Hampton Roads. The Diabetes Institutes' research may produce a cure for diabetes in humans as it has in laboratory animals. Eli Lilly obviously regards the gene discovery as very promising.

The discovery could - and should - attract funds from near and far for further research; contributions may be directed to The Diabetes Institutes Foundation, 855 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510.

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