The National Institutes of Health awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System a five-year $2.9-million grant to launch a new center for diabetes research.
The New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research, will be among only eight in the country.
The Center will serve as a collaborative hub for investigators conducting studies on pre-diabetes, diabetes and its complications and will also include faculty from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Working as principal investigators are Elizabeth Walker, professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, and Judith Wylie-Rosett, professor and division head of health promotion and nutrition research in the department of epidemiology and population health.
"Our overall goal is to improve the health of people who have diabetes or are at risk for developing it, with a focus on low-income communities and various racial and ethnic groups that are disproportionately affected by the disease and poor access to care," Wylie-Rosett, said. "This center provides a way for us to share our research expertise with others trying to reduce health disparities and promote health equity."
Members of certain ethnic and racial groups – including Latinos/Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian-Americans – are at a higher risk for developing diabetes than non-Latino white adults, the researchers noted. Those groups are also at increased risk for diabetes-related complications, such as lower limb amputations, vision loss and kidney failure.
Diabetes is 70 percent more common in high-poverty neighborhoods than in more affluent ones, the researchers added. It’s a situation the center will take on with new interventions tailored to the population and with programs to reduce obesity – a major risk for diabetes.
