Burnham to target diabetes, obesity
By Eve Samples
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2006
The Burnham Institute for Medical Research will devote much of its work at a proposed Florida campus to finding cures for one of the few diseases that afflicts First World countries more severely than the Third World: diabetes.
Institute officials confirmed this week that Burnham intends to use the Florida lab — whether it ends up in Port St. Lucie, Orlando or elsewhere — for expanding its research into obesity and diabetes, two growing nationwide epidemics.
"You don't have to be too astute an observer to walk down the street and see what percentage of the population is obese. A significant portion of those are going to develop diabetes," said Dr. Fred Levine, a top diabetes researcher at Burnham's main campus in La Jolla, Calif.
Burnham leaders have talked with the University of Florida about the possibility of establishing a joint research site at the new campus, said Levine, emphasizing that the discussions were still in the early stages.
"I think (Burnham Chief Executive) John Reed saw diabetes and obesity as an area in which we had some activities at the La Jolla site, but in which there is a tremendous amount of work to be done," he said.
Burnham, which was founded in 1976 as a cancer research foundation, historically has not been a big player on the diabetes front. Though researchers in several of Burnham's La Jolla laboratories have studied the disease for years, Levine said it has been more a natural evolution than targeted focus.
"I think that's going to be different than what can happen in Florida, where it's going to be a concerted effort," Levine said.
That's contingent on what experts can be recruited to Burnham's Florida campus to work in the field.
"Part of this due diligence is trying to find the best research and the best researchers," said Chris Lee, Burnham's director of external relations.
In Florida, Burnham also intends to expand its work into the broader-based field of drug discovery, and other areas of research could emerge with time, Lee said.
Would complement work
On the diabetes front, the University of Florida and the University of Miami, both home to research centers focusing on the disease, would be natural targets for collaboration.
"There's already a huge effort going on that can only be complemented by other (groups) that can come down here," said Dr. Luigi Meneghini, director of the Eleanor and Joseph Kosow Diabetes Treatment Center at the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami.
The state earmarked $95 million this year to jump-start Florida universities' ties with research institutes such as Burnham, and UF has its sights on the money.
"Part of those funds will definitely be interaction with Burnham," said Win Phillips, UF's vice president for research. "We have essentially told them that when they come to Florida, whichever place that is, we will have a presence with them."
The university will cater its research to suit Burnham's selected topics, and if that means diabetes, "we certainly have some strengths there," Phillips said.
Burnham is a sister institute of The Scripps Research Institute, which has a branch campus in Jupiter where it already is researching diabetes. Among U.S. research institutes, Burnham ranks seventh in grants from the National Institutes of Health, and Scripps ranks first.
Burnham has about 750 employees on its 9-acre California campus and is looking for a new 175,000-square-foot facility in Florida. Port St. Lucie has offered to build it for Burnham on 140 acres in the Tradition development, and the city plans to raise $70 million in new construction fees for the task.
Its known competitors for Burnham are Orlando and Naples. Institute officials have said they intend to announce a decision sometime this summer.
Diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes five years ago, Port St. Lucie Councilwoman Patricia Christensen said knowing Burnham planned to concentrate on the disease intensified her feelings in the race for the institute.
"To know that we could potentially have Burnham here and have them develop a cure for it is even more exciting," she said.
Port St. Lucie Mayor Bob Minsky said diabetes research could be a good fit for the city because it is home to one of the nation's largest distributors of diabetes supplies, Liberty Medical Supply.
Liberty's base of diabetes supply customers has climbed to about 875,000 as disease rates have climbed, company officials have said.
In La Jolla, much of Burnham's diabetes research has centered on insulin-producing "beta cells," and figuring out how to generate more of them.
Stem cells are viewed by many as a promising medium for researching diabetes, but Levine said he didn't know whether that would be a focus in Florida. California's voter-approved Proposition 71 means $300 million will be pumped into stem-cell research in that state annually.
"It wouldn't be all that logical a decision to say, 'Oh yes, let's put a lot of money into stem-cell research in Florida,' " he said.
Still, there's "tremendous opportunity" in Florida for diabetes research, especially on the Type 2 front, Meneghini said. He cited high rates of the disease in South Florida and a multiethnic population.
Florida among hardest hit
Of every 100 adults in Florida, 7.4 were diagnosed with diabetes in 2004, a rate higher than all but 15 other states, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up from 4.7 of every 100 adults in 1994.
Hispanics, American Indians and black Americans are at higher risk than their white counterparts, according to the American Diabetes Association.
The large elderly population in Martin and St. Lucie counties would provide a built-in pool for clinical trials if Burnham sets up on the Treasure Coast, said Dr. Howard Robbins, chief medical officer for Stuart-based Martin Memorial Health Systems, which is vying for a new hospital near Burnham's proposed campus in western Port St. Lucie.
"They have the research, and we have the patients," he said.
If Burnham chooses Port St. Lucie for a campus, it could set the stage for a diabetes-focused research corridor stretching south to Miami.
The Miami-based Diabetes Research Institute concentrates primarily on Type 1 diabetes, and the University of Miami is interested in developing a Type 2 clinical program, Meneghini said.
"I think there's plenty of opportunity for collaboration," he said.
Though he wasn't familiar with Burnham's work on the disease, he said there's clearly a need for more investigation of the disease.
"There is a lot more room, and probably there's not enough people devoted to it if you look at the impact of diabetes as a disease," Meneghini said. "It is absolutely astronomical."
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