Diabetes Dateline

NIDDK Advisory Council Gains Four

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) announced that four new members were appointed to the NIDDK Advisory Council in 2001. NIDDK is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the major Federal funder of U.S. biomedical research. NIDDK Director Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., welcomed the following new members:

David Baldridge is executive director of the National Indian Council on Aging and author of numerous articles and monographs on health care for American Indian elders. He has written for the Indian Health Service, the National Indian Policy Center, the American Society on Aging, and the Health Care Financing Administration. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mr. Baldridge is former national media director of the World Wide Ski Corporation and also of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He graduated from the English honors program at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Jose F. Caro, M.D., is vice president of endocrine research and clinical investigation for Lilly Research Laboratories and professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, both in Indianapolis. Since graduating from the Schools of Medicine in Madrid, Spain, and Montevideo, Uruguay, Dr. Caro has had multiple grants from the NIDDK and other institutes at the National Institutes of Health, as well as the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Several pharmaceutical companies have also supported the work of his 20-year career. Dr. Caro's research focus is on the molecular mechanisms of obesity and type 2 diabetes, including insulin sensitivity, glucose transport metabolism and the role of leptin.

Mr. Baldridge and Dr. Caro are joining the Diabetes, Endocrine, and Metabolic Diseases subcouncil.

Carolyn J. Kelly, M.D., is a nephrologist and professor of medicine in residence at the University of California, San Diego. She has received several clinician-scientist awards, and is a long-standing NIDDK grantee whose research focus is autoimmune disease and immunoregulation. Dr. Kelly graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and received her M.D. from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and further training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She joins the Kidney, Urology, and Hematology subcouncil.

Vicki Ratner, M.D., is president and founder of the Interstitial Cystitis Association (ICA). A practicing orthopedic surgeon in San Jose, California, Dr. Ratner has advocated since 1984 for patients suffering from interstitial cystitis (IC), a painful, chronic bladder disease that affects mostly women. In addition to encouraging NIH research funding and public education for IC, Dr. Ratner has developed and oversees a $1 million pilot research portfolio for the ICA. She is the recipient of the F. Scott Brantley Award, given by the Bladder Health Council of the American Foundation of Urologic Disease. She also received the "Advocate of the Year" award from the Society for the Advancement of Women's Health Research. Dr. Ratner graduated from Columbia University and received her M.D. from the Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York. She trained in general and orthopedic surgery at Montefiore/Albert Einstein Medical Center, New York. Dr. Ratner also joins the Kidney, Urology, and Hematology subcouncil.

U.S. law mandates that two peer groups review all applications for NIH funding. First, a study section of experts assigns numeric priority ratings to applications based on their scientific merit and feasibility. Applications approved for funding are then reviewed by the Institute's National Advisory Council. The new Council members will serve until 2004.

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