Medfield Residents Help Gov. Patrick Break Ground on Translational Center for Diabetes Cure

BOSTON — On Thursday, Medfield residents Lilly Branka, 10 and John Brooks, president and CEO of Joslin Diabetes Center, joined Governor Deval Patrick to break ground on the center's new Translational Center for the Cure of Diabetes at its campus in the heart of Boston’s Longwood Medical Area of Boston. 

Gov. Patrick swung a sledgehammer along with  Brooks and the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Susan Windham-Bannister. 

In January, the world leader in diabetes research and care received a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, among the highest amounts ever received to support diabetes research in Massachusetts. The grant was matched with funds raised from generous Joslin donors, and a total of $10.8 million will be used to build the comprehensive center.

Brooks, a Medfield resident and president and CEO of Joslin Diabetes Center, said, “this is an exciting day for us at Joslin. Our life’s work is to find a cure for diabetes; as this pandemic accelerates we need to prevent it and find innovative ways to care for those who are impacted by it.” 

“This grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and the required matching funds from Joslin donors, will enable us to accelerate our clinical and research efforts, develop translational studies for curing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and will advance our work in diabetes prevention and obesity,” Brooks said.

The groundbreaking was part of a series of press events and announcements leading up to the 2012 BIO International Convention, which begins on Monday, June 18 in Boston. The event also served to mark the four-year anniversary of the passage and signing of Governor Patrick’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, through which the grant funding for Joslin was made possible. In June of 2008 Patrick signed the Life Sciences Initiative at the Joslin Diabetes Center, surrounded by children with diabetes; he described today’s groundbreaking as “bringing us full circle.”

“When we stood here at Joslin in 2008 and launched the Life Sciences Initiative, this is exactly the type of investment in our future we envisioned, to secure and expand the Commonwealth's leadership in health care, innovation and job growth," said Patrick. “Joslin Diabetes Center does life-saving work, and we are proud to be able to help advance it.”

The project, slated for completion in 2015, will renovate nearly 20,000 square feet of space and is projected to create approximately 50 construction jobs beginning in FY13, and approximately 50 new permanent jobs in the life sciences. More than 25 million Americans have diabetes, a number that is increasing by one million per year. In Massachusetts, more than 400,000 adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, and these numbers are increasing at epidemic rates (61 percent in the last 12 years).

The cost of diabetes in the Bay State is $4.3 billion annually.

“This new center will make important advances in treating and preventing a devastating disease that affects so many families in Massachusetts and across the Globe,” said Windham-Bannister. “One of our goals is to invest in unique resources for the life sciences community and this new center will cement Massachusetts' leadership for years to come as an innovator in diabetes research. Finally, this investment will create jobs, which is an important part of the Life Sciences Center’s mission.”

The Translational Center for the Cure of Diabetes encompasses 16 unique, yet interrelated, sub-projects that bridge clinical research, clinical care, and basic research with translational programs to ensure that Joslin continues to advance it’s “clinic to research to clinic” solutions. This cross-pollination of clinical and research disciplines is critical because the cure for diabetes is a vexing goal due to the complexity of the disease, as it has different forms and complications that affect the eyes, kidneys, nerves, and the cardiovascular system. 

Joslin expects the Translational Center to foster new research approaches whereby basic, translational and clinical researchers work side-by-side and collaborate with Joslin’s clinical team in an interactive and supportive environment, enabling exciting new ideas to flourish, and where the latest innovative technologies and new biomedical discoveries are advanced so that they can be translated quickly into solutions that help patients and others with or at risk of diabetes. 

About Joslin Diabetes Center

Joslin Diabetes Center, located in Boston, is the world’s preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

About the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) is a quasi-public agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts tasked with implementing the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, a ten-year, $1 billion initiative that was signed into law in June of 2008. The Center’s mission is to create jobs in the life sciences and support vital scientific research that will improve the human condition. This work includes making financial investments in public and private institutions that are advancing life sciences research, development and commercialization as well as building ties among sectors of the Massachusetts life sciences community. For more information, visit www.masslifesciences.com.