4/12/06 Contact:
Charles Martin, 334/844-3698 (marticd@auburn.edu)
David M. Granger, 334/844-9999 (grangdm@auburn.edu)
AU VETERINARY
COLLEGE RECEIVES $1 MILLION FROM DIABETES TRUST FOUNDATION
AUBURN - The Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine has received
a $1 million gift from the Birmingham-based Diabetes Trust Foundation
to further its studies into the disease that affects both humans and animals.
“We are very appreciative of the gift,” said Timothy Boosinger,
veterinary dean. “Most of the money will go into an existing endowment
and the rest will be used immediately toward our research efforts.”
Boosinger said $900,000 will be added to the Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic
Diseases Research Program Endowment that was created in 2001, bringing
the total to $1.9 million. Interest from the account is used to support
various diabetes research projects. Auburn will apply the remaining $100,000
toward research equipment and supplies.
The Diabetes Trust Foundation was founded in 1964 by Dr. Buris R. Boshell
and his friends and colleagues. The foundation built the Diabetes Research
and Education Hospital at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and
in 1985 it was named the Buris R. Boshell, M.D., Diabetes Research and
Education Hospital.
Dr. Boshell, who died in 1995, was a 1947 Auburn agriculture graduate
who attended the veterinary college for two years before transferring
to Harvard Medical School. He served from 1959 to 1989 on the faculty
of the UAB Medical Center before moving to the Boshell Diabetes and Endocrine
Center at Medical Center East in 1990.
“We are confident that the work of Auburn’s research program
will have a profound impact on improved treatment and research in diabetes,”
said Cindy Brown, Diabetes Trust Foundation president. “Since its
inception, the foundation has contributed more than $35 million toward
diabetes research and programs to make life better for diabetics across
our nation.”
Diabetes occurs in humans and animals when the body doesn’t produce
enough insulin or cannot properly utilize it. This makes it difficult
for blood sugar to enter the body’s cells, and if left untreated,
it can lead to blindness, kidney failure, stroke, amputations and the
increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It is the sixth leading cause
of death in the United States.
“Diabetes is a devastating disease that affects more than 20 million
people in the United States, and a third of them do not realize they have
it,” said Robert Judd, the Boshell Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic
Diseases in AU’s veterinary college. “It can strike at any age.”
Auburn University is a preeminent land-grant and comprehensive research
institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff.
Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama’s
largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate,
graduate and doctoral degree programs.
(Contributed by Charles Martin.)
# # #
apr06:AU-DiabetesGift