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Dr. Raghu Mirmira
University of Virginia, Department of Medicine
Diabetes Center, 450 Ray C. Hunt Drive, Box 801407
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Associate Professor
(7/05-present),
University of Virginia
Department of Medicine (Division of Endocrinology and
Metabolism)
Department of Pharmacology
Associate Director
(9/03-present),
University of Virginia
Diabetes and Hormone Center of Excellence
Director, Molecular Medicine Graduate Program
(7/05-present),
University of Virginia
Stem Cell Alternatives to
Beta Cell Replacement
FUNDING AGENCIES:
Lori
Miller Diabetes Inspired Venture, Meade Family Foundation,
University of Virginia
Yearly Budget:
$164,100
Goldman
Philanthropic Partnerships is delighted to update our donors on
the impact their generous contributions have made to accelerate
a cure for Type I Diabetes. Your donation helped to fund Dr.
Raghu Mirmira’s innovative Gene Therapy Diabetes Research at the
University of Virginia. GPP is very excited that Dr. Mirmira and
his team of researchers at UVA have made significant progress in
their diabetes research, including two major breakthroughs!
Dr.
Mirmira’s gene therapy research plan was to find cells in a
patient’s own body that don’t normally produce insulin but had
the potential to produce insulin if their insulin-producing
genes could be switched on. Major diabetes organizations like
JDRF turned down this proposal as “too risky”. Through GPP, you
and our Science Advisors decided the potential reward, to cure
diabetes through a new research technique, was worth that risk.
The first major breakthrough occurred early last summer when
staff in Dr. Mirmira’s research lab successfully used gene
therapy for the first time to actually “switch on” the
insulin-producing genes in non-pancreas cells.
When Dr.
Mirmira began the “switching on” process, he discovered that
some cells switched on easily, but others did not. After months
of intensive research, his team found that some cells could not
be switched on because the genes that needed to be changed were
hidden in the middle of the gene structure, which is called
chromatin. Dr. Mirmira’s team determined where the specific
insulin-producing genes were located in the chromatin of each
cell type. They are now learning how to change the packing of
the chromatin so these target genes are available to be switched
on, using enzymes that reshape specific areas of the chromatin
to move the target genes more towards the outside of the
chromatin mass.
This was
a second major discovery,
not just for diabetes research, but for all gene therapy and
disease research, and earned Dr. Mirmira’s lab at UVA a
$1,000,000 million dollar grant from the American Diabetes
Association to fund a separate chromatin research project.
Your support of the original gene therapy project has now
leveraged over $1.4 M dollars in additional funding to support
both the original gene therapy project and the chromatin
project, which are now at the forefront of diabetes research.
Once the
first portion of the chromatin research is completed, the
research team will return to your gene therapy project to use
that chromatin knowledge to create the new insulin-producing
cells, continuing to use the funds you have provided and will
continue to provide. We are enthusiastic about this gene
therapy project's breakthroughs and look forward to sending you
information on additional project discoveries.
By merging
business and philanthropy, GPP’s dedicated donors, innovative
researchers, and leading research institutions work together to
directly fund pioneering research that would otherwise remain
unfunded. These are the projects that will cure catastrophic
diseases.
The
successes of Dr. Mirmira and his research team at UVA could not
have been realized without your charitable contribution. Your
generosity is what allows us to fulfill our mission and is
vital as we continue our efforts to find a cure for
diabetes. A contribution of any size is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your consideration. We can’t do it without
you!
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