Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
December 2021
As 2021 draws to a close, I feel there is much to celebrate and be grateful for this year. Throughout 2021, INMD has been focused on the delivery of the 100 Years of Insulin: Accelerating Canadian Discoveries to Defeat Diabetes initiative. This initiative has 5 major components, and I would invite you to visit the initiative website to read about the new research teams being funded on our Featured Research page, as well as the researchers leading these new research teams on our Faces of Health Research webpage. It was a great pleasure for me to announce new research funding for Team Grants in Diabetes Mechanisms and Translational Solutions during the recent Diabetes Canada/Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism Professional Conference together with our partners, Diabetes Canada, JDRF Canada, Kidney Foundation of Canada, and Fonds de Researche du Quebec – Sante. Thank you to these partners, as well as the collaborating CIHR institutes, who have contributed energy, enthusiasm and funding to develop and support this initiative. I would like to draw your attention to two teams are we could not initially announce being led by Dr. James Shapiro and Dr. Tim Kieffer who are tackling the challenges of cell replacement therapy. This is a field that offers great hope for a cure for type 1 diabetes and builds on past Canadian scientific advances, and we wish these teams every success as they move forward.
In June of this year I extremely thrilled to have had the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health in planning a virtual symposium, Heterogeneity of Diabetes: Beta Cells, Phenotypes and Precision Medicine. The video recordings from this Symposium are still available online, and it was exciting to see the online ahead of print versions of the manuscript, Heterogeneity of Diabetes: β-Cells, Phenotypes, and Precision Medicine: Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes and the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases released in Diabetes Care, Diabetes and the Canadian Journal of Diabetes to coincide with Diabetes Awareness Month.
December marks the end of my 4-year term as Scientific Director of the CIHR-Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, and I am pleased to share the news that I have been renewed for a second term. I look forward to implementing knowledge mobilization activities related to the 100 Years of Insulin initiative, as well as the INMD Strategic Plan.
When I stepped into my position as Scientific Director of INMD, I never could have predicted the dramatic changes that would occur because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have certainly missed opportunities to interact in-person with friends and colleagues since March 2020, and it is my hope that in 2022, we will have the chance once again to attend conferences and events so that we can enjoy the collegiality that comes with sharing the excitement of science and new ideas in these fora
Best wishes for a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season,
Dr. Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
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