|
A Short History of the
Alberta Diabetes Institute
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta
Updated: March 3, 2008
|
|
1921 |
Dr.
Frederick G. Banting, Dr. Charles H. Best, Dr. James B. Collip, and Dr. John R.
MacLeod collaborate at the
University of
Toronto on
the discovery of insulin. Dr. Banting and MacLeod are awarded the 1922 Nobel
Prize for Medicine, which they respectively share with Dr. Best and Dr. Collip.
|
|
|
Dr.
George Molnar is recruited from the Mayo Clinic to become
Chair of the Department of Medicine at the
University of
Alberta.
Over time, Dr. Molnar plays a key role in developing diabetes research at the
University of
Alberta and
in creating and developing the Muttart Diabetes Research and Training Centre.
He begins by recognizing the work of Dr. Ray V. Rajotte whose PhD thesis
demonstrates that rat islets can be successfully cryopreserved.
|
|
|
Dr.
Ray V. Rajotte, a biomedical engineer, is cross-appointed to
the Departments of Medicine and Surgery within the Faculty of Medicine at the
University of
Alberta
with a specific research interest in the cryopreservation and transplantation
of islets. He begins his research work with Dr. Molnar on hepatic glucose
production.
|
|
|
The
Alberta Heritage Foundation for
Medical Research (AHFMR) is
established under Dr. Lionel McLeod by the Hon. Peter Lougheed with a $300
million dollar endowment that is now over $1.45 billion dollars. AHFMR has provided essential grant and salary
support to diabetes researchers in
Alberta
for over 25 years.
|
|
|
Dr.
Ray Rajotte and Dr. Garth L. Warnock successfully isolate
pure islets from dog pancreases, thus setting the stage for the clinical islet transplant
program to follow.
|
|
|
The
Muttart Foundation donates $1.2 million to establish the Muttart Diabetes Research and Training
Centre (MDRTC) at the
University of
Alberta,
facilitating the recruitment of Dr.
Edmond A. Ryan in 1983 and Dr. Alex
Rabinovitch, a researcher in the prevention and treatment of type 1
diabetes, in 1988. Dr. Rabinovitch
and Dr. Molnar are co-directors of the MDRTC.
|
|
|
The
Islet Transplantation Group is started at the
University of
Alberta
with Dr. Ray V. Rajotte named as the group’s Director. Dr. Norman M. Kneteman, a
liver transplant specialist, joins the group in 1985.
|
|
|
Dr.
Edmond A. Ryan
conducts a pioneering study identifying insulin resistance of pregnancy and the
role of pregnant hormones in gestational diabetes. Dr. Ryan plays a leading
role in the University’s of
Alberta transplant
research and becomes Medical Director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program
in 1998.
|
|
|
The
Alberta Foundation for Diabetes
Research (AFDR) is registered as a charitable public foundation
in
Alberta by
Edmonton community
members with diabetic children wanting to support islet transplant research
after JDRF, CDA, and other granting agencies decline to support islet
transplant research.
|
|
|
First
human islet research trial preparations begin, following
successful animal studies, conducted
by the
University of
Alberta Islet Transplant
Group and supported directly by public donations to the AFDR.
|
|
|
First
human islet transplant procedure in
Canada is
completed by the Islet Transplantation Group. The third patient receiving the
procedure remains insulin-free for two and a half years using a combination of
fresh and cryopreserved islet tissue.
|
|
|
Dr.
D. Lorne Tyrrell is named Dean of Medicine at the
University of
Alberta on
October 1. During his tenure, the independent Faculty of Medicine and Faculty
of Dentistry merge together and Dr. Tyrrell expands the medical research
program and begins construction on the Health Research Innovation Facility
buildings.
|
|
|
Capital
Health is created in
Edmonton with
10,175 staff serving 727,370 in population, and approximately $780 million
dollar budget under Alberta Health’s new regional plan. Today, Capital Health
has 29,000 staff and serves 1,000,000 Albertans with a budget of $2.2 billion
dollars, including Dr. Ellen Toth’s
unique mobile diabetes diagnostic facilities serving the province’s Aboriginal
population.
|
|
|
Dr.
Gregory S. Korbutt, a former graduate student of Dr. Rajotte’s, is
recruited back to
Edmonton to
join the Department of Surgery and the Islet Transplantation Group with a
strong research background in islet physiology and new sources of islet tissue.
|
|
|
Dr.
Jonathan R. T. Lakey returns to the
University of
Alberta
where he had previously trained in large animal and clinical isolation and
cryopreservation under Dr. Rajotte and Dr. Warnock and is appointed Director of
the Clinical Islet Isolation Laboratory.
|
|
|
Dr.
A. M. James Shapiro comes to
Edmonton from
the
United Kingdom to
do a Transplant Fellowship and PhD in experimental surgery under Dr. Norman M.
Kneteman and is persuaded to stay. With his background as a multi-organ
transplant surgeon with experience in clinical immunosuppression and experimental
islet transplant research, Dr. Shapiro is named Director of the Clinical Islet
Transplant Program.
|
|
|
Dr.
Timothy Keiffer, a diabetes researcher at the University, leads
a team that discovers a way to genetically alter cells in the intestines of mice
to allow them to produce and release insulin, thus imitating the work of the pancreas.
|
|
|
New England Medical Journal
advances publication of the “Edmonton Protocol” article written by eight
members of the Islet Transplantation Group (Drs. James Shapiro, Jonathan Lakey,
Edmond Ryan, Gregory Korbutt, Ellen Toth, Garth Warnock, Norman Kneteman, and
Ray Rajotte) six weeks before schedule for the June issue. The Edmonton Protocol
increases islet transplant success rates from 8% to 100% at the one year mark
by using a non-corticosteroid treatment regime, and 11,000 islets/kg of patient
weight.
|
|
|
An Interim
Diabetes Steering Committee is established to develop
a proposed plan for the new Alberta
Diabetes Research Institute as part of the Faculty of Medicine and
Dentistry that will include researchers from the Faculties of Agriculture,
Forestry and Home Economics, and Physical Education and Recreation.
|
|
|
Clinical
Trials of the
Edmonton Protocol
begin in ten clinical centres. By 2006, more than 550 patients will be treated
using the Edmonton Protocol in approximately 50 clinical centres around the
world.
|
|
|
The
construction of the Health Research Innovation Facility, HRIF East & West
buildings, is announced (providing 69,500 meters2/748,090
feet2 of essential research, teaching, and administration space), is
announced with initial Alberta Government funding of $110 million dollars. ADRI
researchers will occupy most of the
East
Building.
Construction begins in July 2003, to be completed mid-2007.
|
|
|
The
Academic Planning Committee of the
University of
Alberta
approves the establishment and proposed business plan for the Alberta Diabetes Research Institute.
Responsibility for implementing the plan is vested with the host Faculty of
Medicine and Dentistry.
|
|
|
Alberta Foundation for Diabetes
Research commits $10 million capital fundraising to HRIF-East
campaign and renames itself the Alberta
Diabetes Foundation (ADF). In response to their generous gift commitment,
the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the
University of
Alberta offer
to rename the Alberta Diabetes Institute
(ADI) and commit space in HRIF-East for the ADF Office.
|
|
|
Dr.
Ray Rajotte is named Interim Scientific Director of the
Alberta Diabetes Institute, (and made permanent Scientific Director in 2004). Mr. Brian Manning of TkMC Consulting
Ltd. is contracted to act as Interim Executive Director of the ADI prior to the
hiring of a permanent Executive Director.
|
|
|
Canadian
Centre for Health Research Excellence Award is given to the Alberta
Institute researchers by Health
Canada in
recognition of the “award-winning, internationally recognized research team” in
islet cell transplantation and other “key areas of medical research.”
|
|
|
Dr.
Thomas J. Marrie becomes Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and
Dentistry on July 1. Dr. Marrie provides support and guidance to the
development of the Alberta Diabetes Institute.
|
|
|
1st
Annual ADI Research Retreat Day is held on September
17th and attracts
University of
Alberta
researchers, students, fellows, and external guests.
|
|
|
2nd
Annual ADI Research Retreat Day is held on September
16th and attracts
University of
Alberta
researchers, students, fellows, and special guest speaker Dr. Ronald G. Gill
from the
University of
Colorado.
|
|
|
3nd
Annual ADI Research Retreat Day is held on September
15th and attracts
University of
Alberta
researchers, students, fellows, and special guest speaker Dr. Ronald J. Sigal
from the
University of
Calgary.
|
|
|
Dr.
Ronald G. Gill of the
University of
Colorado
joins the Alberta Diabetes Institute as its second Scientific Director and
plans the first meeting the ADI’s new Scientific Committee.
|
|
|
4th
Annual ADI Research Retreat Day is held on September
28th and attracts
University of
Alberta
researchers, students, fellows, and special guest speaker Dr. Susan K. Fried
from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
|
|
|
Opening
of the Health Research Innovation Facility (
East
Building)
in November, the new home of the ADI.
|
|
|
|
