Some of the leading experts in the field of diabetes research will gather in Charlottesville this week for the first annual Manning Diabetes Symposium at the University of Virginia.
The event is named for entrepreneur Paul Manning and his wife Diane Manning, whose foundation, The Focus to Cure Diabetes Foundation, and extraordinary commitment to the battle against the disease has seen the couple donate more than $5 million to diabetes research efforts at the University of Virginia. It will feature presentations and seminars on topics including islet immunology, advances in autoimmunity, the role of inflammation and strategies for immune modulation; islet biology and beta-cell regeneration, a poster session featuring Type-1 Diabetes research; islet allo-and-xeno transplantation, and artificial pancreas closed loop system development.
“It is very exciting to bring together some of the greatest minds engaged in the fight against this disease to Charlottesville and to the University of Virginia,” said Manning. “This is a critically important time in the Diabetes research effort. The past several years have seen many promising advances in the field, but there is clearly much more work to be done. It is my hope that an event like this one can encourage more collaboration, more education and ultimately, more significant advances on the road to a cure.”
“This is yet another example of Paul Manning’s extraordinary commitment to the diabetes research efforts at the University of Virginia,” said Kenneth L. Brayman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery at the University of Virginia. “The opportunity to come together and share ideas and results with colleagues from around the country and beyond is an exciting and important one, particularly at a time when we are seeing so much promise on so many fronts of this battle.”
The first annual Manning Diabetes Symposium, which will be presented at Jordan Hall Conference Center, is sponsored by the Center for Cellular Therapy and Biologic Therapeutics, Department of Surgery, University of Virginia; the Center for Diabetes Technology, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, Medicine and Systems & Information Engineering, University of Virginia; Center for Public Health Genomics, School of Medicine, University of Virginia; Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia; Office of Continuing Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, and The Focus to Cure Diabetes Foundation, the non-profit affiliate of Beta-Pro LLC.
