New IBRI Center to Focus on Diabetes

IBRI is one of many life science organizations to collaborate on the new app

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) is teaming up with the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine to create the Lilly Diabetes Center of Excellence. Lilly says the goal of the center is to establish a nexus of strategically-aligned basic diabetes research operations in Indy.

The LDCE plans to recruit principal investigators to pursue cutting-edge research in diabetes, diabetic complications, and related metabolic disorders. Each PI will receive five-year appointments at the IBRI sponsored by Lilly and faculty appointments at the IU School of Medicine. They will have full academic freedom to pursue their area of research and Lilly says it will provide opportunities for close collaborations.

"The Lilly Diabetes Center of Excellence is a prime example of why the IBRI was created to foster industry and academic collaboration on research that will ultimately benefit patients and significantly improve human health," said Rainer Fischer, chief executive officer of the IBRI. "This new center aligns the extensive diabetes research already underway at Lilly, IU School of Medicine and at the IBRI to find new collaborative ways to slow, if not eventually cure diabetes, which afflicts hundreds of millions worldwide."

Lilly says the LDCE will also provide opportunities for interaction, training, and mentoring among the IBRI, Lilly, and the IU School of Medicine.

Robert Considine, professor of medicine at the IUSM, will serve as director of the diabetes center. He says the IBRI’s Regenerative Medicine and Metabolic Biology group, which focuses on diabetes research, will become part of the new center.