The Indiana Diabetes Research Center

poster abstractThe mission of the Indiana Diabetes Research Center (IDRC) is to foster knowledge, support training, and promote basic and translational research in diabetes and obesity, related metabolic disorders, and their complications. Three major activities supported by this Signature Center are the: 1) Pilot and Feasibility Program, 2) Diabetes Research Core and 3) Enrichment Program. The goal of the P&F Program is to provide resources that enable new and established investigators to apply their expertise to research relevant to the treatment of diabetes, obesity and complications of the diseases, with the expectation that this support will lead to success in receiving extramural funding. The Diabetes Research Core provides state-of-the-art methodologies, which represent strengths on the campus, but are also difficult to set up in individual labs. The goal of the Enrichment Program is to foster interaction and scientific discussion among faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows on the IUPUI campus to enhance interest in diabetes and diabetes-related research, and catalyze the dissemination of the latest research advances and techniques to the IDRC community. Current and upcoming Center Activities: Two Pilot Funding awards were made to junior faculty for studies to begin in January 2015. These studies will utilize advanced experimental techniques available through the Diabetes Research Core. A second round of Pilot and Feasibility grant applications has been solicited for studies to begin July 2015. The IDRC will sponsor a Diabetes Day Symposium on the IUPUI campus on August 7, 2015. The symposium will include a keynote presentation by an internationally recognized diabetes investigator, as well as poster sessions to highlight diabetes and metabolic research on the campus and breakout groups to discuss techniques available and to be developed by the Research Core