TYPE 1 DIABETES INCIDENCE INCREASES WITH INCREASING PATERNAL AGE AND OTHER FACTORS WHY NOT INFORM THE PUBLIC?

Richard Insel



Robert Wood Johnson IV
Jackson Laboratory researcher receives JDRF's Grodsky award
Dr. David Serreze honored for work in immunology of type 1 diabetes
New York, NY— May 18, 2007 -- The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world’s largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, announced today that Dr. David Serreze, senior staff scientist at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, is the recipient of the 2007 Gerold & Kayla Grodsky Basic Research Scientist Award. The award, among JDRF’s most prestigious, will be given to Dr. Serreze at an awards ceremony tonight at the Marriott Financial Center in downtown Manhattan.

"JDRF is in the business of finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. As such, we work with world-class researchers who share our mission and are making significant progress towards that goal," said Dr. Richard Insel, Executive Vice President of Research at JDRF. "After careful consideration of many excellent candidates, we are thrilled to acknowledge Dr. Serreze for his outstanding work in accelerating the pace of diabetes research."

The Gerold & Kayla Grodsky Award is presented annually to a basic research scientist who has made outstanding contributions to diabetes research. JDRF established the award in 1993 to honor the contributions of Dr. Grodsky’s diabetes research at UCSF over four decades. A gift to JDRF from the Grodskys has made it possible for a monetary award to be presented each year to a Ph.D. researcher who has made an outstanding contribution to the study of diabetes.

Through this year’s award, JDRF recognizes Dr. Serreze’s leadership and innovation in the emerging field of diabetic immunology. The award also reflects his expert advice and service on the JDRF Medical Science Review Committee.

"I’m honored and humbled to receive the Grodsky award from the JDRF," said Dr. Serreze. "Type 1 diabetes is a terrible disease, but with the support of the JDRF family, I hope that work from my laboratory may play some small part in leading to cures for type 1 diabetes."

Dr. Serreze has been with the Jackson Laboratory since 1991. He is also adjunct research professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester. A two-time recipient of JDRF’s Mary Jane Kugal Research Award, Dr. Serreze is the author or coauthor of more than 100 research papers. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Maine.