With today's opening of the Alberta Diabetes Institute, the University of Alberta not only welcomed an eagerly-awaited new building into the campus fold, but, hopefully, an unprecedented level of c...
With today's opening of the Alberta Diabetes Institute, the University of Alberta not only welcomed an eagerly-awaited new building into the campus fold, but, hopefully, an unprecedented level of co-operation.
Building on its renowned reputation for diabetes research, the U of A will employ a multidisciplinary approach to solving the diabetes puzzle by involving 35 principal investigators from five university faculties including: Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics; Medicine & Dentistry; Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Physical Education and Recreation and the School of Public Health.
"Such scientific and technological and social advances, today, are rarely achieved by brilliant individuals working in isolation. Instead, they are achieved through highly specialized and collaborative research carried out in highly sophisticated facilities," said U of A President Indira Samarasekera. "Ask any parent of a child with diabetes, they will tell you that it is imperative that a cure be found soon so their child can look forward to a long and happy life. That's why the Alberta Diabetes Institute exists."
In conjunction with World Diabetes Day, the world's gaze focused on the 65,000-square-metre Health Research Innovation Facility, which houses the institute. The institute will eventually occupy about two-thirds of the HRIF east building.
Tom Marrie, dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, said the building represents a considerable achievement and the culmination of a dream from his predecessor, Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, and then-associate dean of research Dr. Joel Weiner.
"You might say it was born out of necessity, but they conceived of the idea that we needed not one, but two research buildings," said Marrie. "It is also a tribute to the career of Ray Rajotte, who 30 years ago began a lifelong journey to try to find a cure for diabetes. Most importantly, this building is all about a team of dedicated individuals from all across the university who have come together to try to find a cure for diabetes."
The institute is the culmination of the life work of Rajotte, who started his research into diabetes in the early 1970s. He was responsible for creating the U of A's famed Islet Transplant team which, in 1999 under the guidance of Dr. James Shapiro, gave the world the Edmonton Protocol - the world's first islet transplant technique. On the heels of this discovery, Rajotte began pushing for a research institute that would corral all facets of diabetes reasearch under one roof.
"It took scientists from each of the five faculties to help write the proposal to the Canada Foundation for Innovation," said Rajotte. "To all the scientists and the support staff - I would like to paraphrase John F. Kennedy - ask not what the Alberta Diabetes Institute can do for you, ask what you can do for the Alberta Diabetes Institute."
"Work together as a team that will lead the world to find a cure for diabetes."
The Canada Foundation for Innovation's original pledge of $28.5 million was the catalyst that sparked the project. The price tag now sits at $300 million, of which the government of Alberta has contributed $246 million.
"There really isn't any more important issue in health today," said David Hancock, Alberta's minister of health and wellness, referencing claims that diabetes is an epidemic. "Improving the health of Albertans will assist us with not only improving the quality of their life and their productivity, but also in controlling health-care costs. And this will only occur if government pursues new ways to save live, works to prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes, and encourages people to stay healthy by eating right and staying active."
Premier Ed Stelmach declared the institute "the brain centre for research."
"As diabetes reaches epidemic proportions world-wide, the opening of the Alberta Diabetes Institute on World Diabetes Day demonstrates Alberta's commitment to investing in diabetes research at the University of Alberta, improving the quality of life for all Canadians affected by diabetes, and providing hope to people across the globe," he said.
With all the university's diabetes researchers now under one roof, institutionalizing the much-talked-about atmosphere of co-operation now falls into the lap of Ron Gill, who takes over from Rajotte as the institute's scientific director.
"A lot of Nobel prizes have been achieved by people who change fields, work with someone in a different area that they didn't understand very well and together they accomplish something very unique," said Gill. "In fact, that's how they discovered insulin: Banting and Best, people who would not normally work together, did something a little bit different, and looked at things a little differently and did something entirely new, and that's how science works."
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it was so cold out there