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of Eastern Virginia Medical School

The Strelitz Diabetes Research Institute, the home of regenerative medicine, has been pioneering this promising avenue of research since 1990, and through regeneration is on the edge of developing innovative treatments toward a cure for diabetes and the reversal and prevention of life-spoiling complications, particularly neuropathy (nerve damage)

An international team of physicians, basic scientists and research assistants is conducting basic science research to develop a cure for diabetes through islet cell regeneration and conducts both basic science and clinical research to prevent debilitating complications, most particularly neuropathy (nerve damage).

Research programs are integrated within a comprehensive network of multi-disciplinary specialties at the medical school and draw upon a technological pool of international universities, private laboratories, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

The integration of the Research Institute with the clinical program provides thousands of the Institutes patients with innovative care.

INITIATIVES

Cure Research

Preventing and Reversing Complications

The Search For A Cure

For decades, scientists around the world have been endeavoring to find a cure for diabetes through different research avenues. The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes has pioneered islet regeneration as a cure for diabetes.

In 1997, Eastern Virginia Medical School created great excitement in the scientific world with its announcement that the Institutes had discovered and patented a unique gene, INGAP (Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein) that researchers believe regenerates the insulin-producing capacity of the pancreas.

The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes’ research efforts continue to focus on understanding the mechanism of islet regeneration. In the belief that islet regeneration therapy will potentially treat both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, the Institutes has developed the ambitious SPIRIT program to continue aggressive research on the stimulation of pancreatic islet regeneration.

Preventing and Reversing Complications

The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes is world-renowned for its cutting-edge research and treatment of neuropathy (nerve damage), the most frequent complication of diabetes afflicting as many as 7 million people in the United States.

Neuropathy equally affects people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, although the progression in type 1 has a more rapid onset, then slows. Researchers at the Strelitz Diabetes Institutes have established that there is a neuropathy that occurs before the onset of diabetes and is part of the dysmetabolic syndrome, a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Vastly under diagnosed because the condition is not homogenous but rather a number of different syndromes, neuropathy is identified by exclusion. Severe ramifications can occur. Early diagnosis and treatment are vital to quality of life and survival.

Peripheral neuropathy can be life-spoiling, causing pain and difficulty with the activities of daily living such as dressing, using a computer and playing sports. Of the 85,000 amputations that are performed each year, neuropathy is responsible for 87%.

Autonomic neuropathy can cause major symptoms such as bladder and bowel dysfunction and impotence. It can be life-threatening when implicated in congestive heart failure that provokes "silent" heart attacks.