September 2010 Archives

Martha Vetter’s stepson, Hans ("Hansie"), has battled type 1 diabetes since age 8. Although he was always a strong, athletic kid, Vetter says it was tough to see him struggle to manage his diabetes. Vetter says Hansie, now 23, found diabetes especially challenging as a teenager, when he was enjoying life as a high school football player. "He wanted to be just one of the guys," she says, not burdened by testing his blood sugar and watching his diet. "It’s made us so aware of the need to find a cure."

Friends are surprised when Joanie Videen, 54, says it is sleep, not food, that has put her over the moon about her pancreas transplant in July. "It’s the best gift I've ever had," she says. "I can sleep all night."

While Videen has dealt with diabetes for nearly 20 years, for the past decade she experienced hypoglycemia unawareness, meaning she had none of the warning symptoms that help diabetics recognize when their blood glucose level falls too low.

Minnesota philanthropists Wendy and Douglas Dayton made a $250,000 gift in May to advance University research in type 2 diabetes and breast cancer. Of that gift, $125,000 was used to purchase a piece of equipment called a Seahorse for the diabetes research of David Bernlohr, Ph.D.

The University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview (UMMC) became the first academic medical center in the nation to be certified by The Joint Commission in advanced inpatient diabetes care.

Islet transplantation has remained experimental since the 1970s, but recent clinical trial outcomes at the University of Minnesota Schulze Diabetes Institute (SDI) are revealing the procedure’s promise as a standard therapy, and even a cure, for type 1 diabetes.

The Golf Classic "fore" Diabetes Research took place on June 21, 2010, at Town & Country Club. More than 200 people attended. Since its inception, the event has raised $4.2 million.