TEAM OF JORGE & TERRY JACOT, PHD'S JOIN STRELITZ

DIABETES RESEARCH INSTITUTES SCIENTIFIC TEAM

It's a natural partnership. Drs. Jorge and Terry Jacot, both physiologists, joined the Strelitz Diabetes Research Institute scientific team this past winter.

The couple is very excited to begin research in the field of islet and nerve regeneration at the Institutes.

With their combined talent and experience, they bring a holistic approach to their new scientific work. Dr. Jorge Jacot's background in animal physiology is a perfect fit with Dr. Terry Jacot's work in cellular mechanisms of disease.

"One of the things that we bring to the Institutes is a breadth of capacity," explains Dr. Jorge Jacot. "Although we're both scientists - similar training, same degrees - through the years we have branched into different disciplines of science."

He continues, "My work targets whole organism physiology with "in vivo" work, and I also bring experience in drug development and the business component that comes along with the pharmaceutical business. Terry's background is in molecular and cellular biology. With our combined talents, we offer a unique range of skills to execute a project from the cellular mechanism all the way to the whole animal and then on to the viable avenues for clinical application."

Both scientists have worked in the diabetes research field since the beginning of their careers at the Uniform Service University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland where they both obtained their doctoral degrees in physiology.

After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Jorge Jacot joined the National Institutes of Health as a fellow in the National Eye Institute. There, he conducted research in diabetic retinopathy, working with noted researcher Dr. W. Gerald Robison, Jr. With her degree, Dr. Terry Jacot began a yearlong postdoctoral fellowship in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she worked with noted endocrinologist Dr. David Clemmons. She then transferred to the NIH to work with Dr. Liliane Striker in diabetic nephropathy.

After Dr. Jorge Jacot's fellowship, a new opportunity in diabetes research as Director of Biology with a biotechnology company drew the couple to Connecticut. Dr. Terry Jacot continued to work in nephropathy for the Veteran's Administration Medical Center.

Dr. Jorge Jacot explains how they became interested in diabetes research at the Strelitz Diabetes Institutes, "Initially, what caught my eye was the pioneering work that's been done with INGAP and islet regeneration. Then recently, we started reading about the other work the Institutes' has been doing with nerve regeneration and topiramate."

"Last year, I contacted Dr. Vinik and came down to Norfolk to meet with him," he continues. "We had some very good exchanges over the course of site interviews, and then I brought Terry down."

Dr. Aaron I. Vinik, Director of Research, comments on the new scientists arrival, "The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes has made major strides in islet and nerve regeneration. We're now at an inflection point. The Jacots will help our program achieve new heights."

"Whatever the outcome of the INGAP trials, there's a lot of exciting investigative basic science research that will be done with INGAP and islet regeneration - a lot of new possibilities and new horizons," adds Dr. Jorge Jacot. "I think the Institutes is poised to be the research team that does the groundbreaking work for that."

Drs. Jacot agree that INGAP is a unique approach among the various other research being done with growth factors. "The preliminary data look very encouraging that INGAP plays, if not a central role, then a synergistic role with regulation of other known growth factors," explains Dr. Jorge Jacot.

Dr. Terry Jacot notes, "I think a big point, too, is that INGAP is specific for the pancreas. With other growth factors, the problem is that they work in many organs. INGAP specifically targets the pancreas."

Along with other members of the Institutes' research team, the Jacots will be working on determining how INGAP's biological mechanism creates an islet cell from precursor cells residing in the pancreatic tissue.

Dr. Jorge Jacot continues, "That's the burning question that needs scrutiny. At the Strelitz Diabetes Institutes, we're part of a larger scientific team that has a myriad of backgrounds and skills. As a whole team, we'll be able to look at the biological mechanisms from different perspectives. We have to pose the right questions, to find the right answers."

Dr. Terry Jacot will be working with Dr. David Taylor-Fishwick, Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology laboratory.

"As I participate in the cell and molecular biology projects, I will also be developing projects of my own," says Dr. Terry Jacot. "It is very possible that Jorge and I will eventually collaborate on new projects."

"We will certainly be able to bounce ideas off of one another," jokes Dr. Jorge Jacot.

Dr. Terry Jacot concludes, "It really is nice to have someone to talk to about your job, someone who really appreciates and understands because many times in the area of research we find that it's so technical that there's only so much you can say to people outside the field."