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November 22, 2004 With new $44 million gift, University of Michigan will accelerate search for Type I diabetes cure New Brehm Center for Type I Diabetes Research will foster rapid discovery through new scientific paradigm |
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ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan announced today that it will launch a new and comprehensive initiative aimed at accelerating the search for a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
The initiative will be enabled by a private donation of $44 million — the largest gift ever for the U-M Health System, and the second-largest gift in U-M history. Says Allen S. Lichter, M.D., dean of the U-M Medical School, “This initiative will point toward a new and different paradigm for Type I diabetes research. It is one intended to accelerate the research process through the unprecedented use of systems analysis and modern information science, and fed by true interdisciplinary cooperation and sharing of research results in real time.” He adds, “The community of scientists at Michigan is fully prepared to take this step — not just those in medicine but in allied fields as well, stretching across the breadth and depth of this great University — for we need a frontal assault on this disease.”
The donors are Bill and Dee Brehm of McLean, Virginia, whose motivation is both personal and philanthropic. In the 55 years since she was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, Dee Brehm has given herself more than 100,000 insulin injections. She has tested her blood over 60,000 times since home monitors became available. Those actions have kept her alive, and helped her fend off the life-threatening complications suffered by many others with the disease. But Dee, and her husband Bill, want something more: They want the pace of the search for a cure to be accelerated. After extensive discussions over four years with scientists at Michigan and elsewhere in the field, they became convinced that, through modern management techniques, the work of the scientists could be enhanced without compromising their creativity or quality standards, thereby affording an acceleration of the research. They outlined a proposal to the U-M and are very pleased with its enthusiastic response.
Says Bill Brehm, “It has been 82 years since insulin became available for therapy. It was a wonderful contribution. However, its effect — we must understand — was not to cure Type I diabetes but rather to alter it from a ‘catastrophic' disease to a ‘chronic' disease. Now it is time for Type 1 diabetes to become a ‘cured' disease.” He continues, “We are very pleased that the University of Michigan is not only willing to mount this major initiative, but that it also stands ready to develop this new paradigm in collaboration with all like-minded research institutions in the United States and elsewhere — to involve all of the fine scientists who today search for a cure for this awful disease. It is a disease that afflicts over 1.3 million Americans, and their families. Diabetes is not a solitary disease, and many of the victims of Type 1 are young children and infants.” Lichter has pledged that the U-M will put “everything we've got” into fulfilling the Brehms' vision. “We're thrilled, and humbled, by their faith in our ability,” he says. “Bill and Dee have an extraordinary vision of a new kind of scientific framework for discovery. And they are making this extraordinary commitment because they want a world where children and adults can be free of insulin shots and constant blood tests, and can live without fear of losing their sight, their limbs, or their lives because of this disease.” Adds Dee Brehm, “We proposed this initiative to the University of Michigan because we found there the collaborative spirit and receptive attitudes necessary to consider and then embrace new ways of thinking about medical research. Moreover, Michigan has the technical and administrative strength and breadth to make this initiative a success, and it has the enthusiastic support of President Mary Sue Coleman and the entire University leadership team. If, through our gift, others can be spared the daily burdens of fear and caution and uncertainty that have so colored our lives because of diabetes, our dreams will have been realized.” The plan encompasses four major actions:
“All of these components of the Brehms' gift will work together to foster unprecedented collaboration among all who seek a solution to Type I diabetes,” says Robert P. Kelch, M.D., U-M executive vice president for medical affairs, CEO of the U-M Health System. Kelch is a pediatric endocrinologist who has diagnosed and treated many patients with Type I diabetes, and also has experience with the disease among members of his own family. The gift's centerpiece is $30 million to design, build, and equip a facility that will embody the new approach to Type I research envisioned by the Brehms. The proposed facility will house research laboratory space, information technology infrastructure and other important components to bring diabetes researchers together. And it will be designed to make it easier for doctors, scientists, computer specialists and systems analysts to combine and organize their efforts for speed.” Dee Brehm was first diagnosed as Type 1 during her sophomore year at Eastern Michigan University in 1949, and became a patient of Jerome Conn, M.D., then Chief of Endocrinology at the University of Michigan. Following her marriage to Bill in 1952 when the couple moved to San Diego, her care was continued by a U-M Medical School graduate who guided her through her first ten years of marriage with the disease, and through her two successful pregnancies at a time when women with Type I diabetes often were unable to have children. Bill, who holds two degrees in mathematics from the University of Michigan, eventually moved the family to Virginia where he entered public service. He joined the Department of Defense and served as assistant secretary of the Army under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, and later as assistant secretary of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford. Today Bill is Chairman Emeritus of SRA International in Fairfax , Virginia; Chairman of the Center for Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia; and a trustee of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Diabetes is a family of disorders all relating to insulin, an essential hormone produced by the pancreas that helps the body use food. Type I, or “juvenile,” diabetes begins during childhood, adolescence or young adulthood. It is brought on by an inappropriate auto-immune response that causes the death of insulin-producing beta cells within the pancreas, leaving patients reliant on insulin injections for the rest of their lives. Type 2, or “adult onset,” occurs mainly in adults whose bodies over time become inefficient at using insulin. In both kinds of diabetes, serious complications such as blindness, disability, heart disease and kidney failure can occur, especially if patients don't control their blood sugar. Early death is common. For more information on the Brehm gift to the University of Michigan, visit www.med.umich.edu/brehm Diabetes Fact Sheet (word doc) Note to producers: Interview footage and B-roll will be available on Monday, November 22, 2004 at 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. EST (10:00 – 10:30 a.m. PST), Intelsat A-5 (C-Band), Transponder 07, 97 Degrees West Longitude, (3840 MHz Vertical downlink frequency), 6.2 and 6.8 dual audio Digital portraits of the Brehms are available upon request; call 734-764-2220.
Written by: Kara Gavin
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Special notes on this release
