Birmingham, Ala. – Diabetes research advocates in Montgomery played a major role in supporting University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approval today of the Comprehensive Diabetes Center at UAB.

Edward Abraham, M.D., chair of the UAB Department of Medicine, said that the Diabetes Trust Foundation’s (DTF) $5.5 million gift was a “significant help” in bringing the new center to fruition.

John D. Smith former Montgomery resident who chairs the DTF board, said, “The funds given to UAB will further DTF’s long-standing mission of providing a better future for diabetics by supporting cutting-edge research, quality professional and public education, and treatment and community services.”

Other DTF board members from Montgomery who were instrumental in the organization’s contributions to UAB are John W. Durr and Samuel “Sam” Adams. Adams’s daughter Mary Elizabeth, a senior at Montgomery Academy who has type 1 diabetes, served as DTF youth ambassador for several years.

A UAB-Community partnership is under way to raise funds to support the creation of a major diabetes research and treatment program at UAB. Nearly $9 million has been raised and will be used to hire a permanent director and six additional faculty members, as well as to provide additional funding to support the center’s operating costs during its start-up years, before it is able to generate its own funding.

Abraham will direct the center on an interim basis and will lead the national search for a highly qualified scientist as permanent director. The Diabetes Center will be housed on the 12th floor of the Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building.

“There are many people in the community to thank for their contributions to helping to find improved ways to care for people with diabetes and to work toward a cure for it,” he said. He specifically thanked the DTF and another major donor, Nancy Gwaltney of Alexander City, Ala., as well as David Silverstein, Benny LaRussa and Robin Sparks of Birmingham, co-chairs for the community effort. The new Diabetes Center will assemble scientists and clinicians from many disciplines to collaborate on translating basic medical discoveries into effective therapies. Existing units that will collaborate include the departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Nutrition Sciences, Pathology, Cell Biology and Genetics.