NIDDK Welcomes Five New Members to Advisory Council
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
today announced the appointment of five new members to its Advisory Council.
NIDDK is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. The NIH is the federal agency with primary responsibility
for funding and conducting biomedical research within the United States. NIDDK
welcomed the following members at its February meeting:
David M. Klurfeld, Ph.D., is a National Program Leader in Human
Nutrition in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. As a Program Leader, Dr. Klurfeld oversees ARS research, the purpose
of which is to define the role of food and its constituents in optimizing health
throughout the life cycle for all Americans. Dr. Klurfeld will serve as an Ex-Officio
member of the Advisory Council and will attend the Digestive Diseases and Nutrition
Subcommittee.
Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D., is a Sylvan H. Eisnman Professor
of Medicine and Genetics and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes,
and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
He is also the Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism
at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Lazar’s
research interests include the regulation of gene expression and metabolism by
nuclear hormone receptors and mechanisms of obesity-associated insulin resistance
and diabetes. Dr. Lazar joins the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases
Subcommittee.
Juanita Lynne Merchant, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Internal
Medicine and Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Merchant’s research interests include the use of animal and cell culture
models to better understand how bacterial colonization in the gastrointestinal
tract can lead to ulcers and cancer. She also studies gastrointestinal peptides
to further understanding of gastric epithelial development. Dr. Merchant joins
the Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Subcommittee.
David H. Perlmutter, M.D., is the Vira I. Heinz Professor and
Chair of Pediatrics and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is also Scientific Director of the John
G. Rangos Sr. Research Center and Physician-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of
Pittsburgh. He is a liver disease researcher, whose work on alpha 1-antitrypsin
deficiency, the most common genetic cause of liver disease in children and of
emphysema in adults, has greatly advanced the understanding of these diseases.
Dr. Permutter joins the Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Subcommittee.
Margery Deutz Perry is the past Chair of Research at the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) International, the leading charitable funder
and advocate of juvenile (type 1) diabetes research worldwide. As Chair of Research
at the JDRF, Ms. Perry oversaw both the development and implementation of JDRF’s
research goals and priorities. She also had responsibility for supervising and
approving all aspects of JDRF’s research programs. Ms. Perry joins the Diabetes,
Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases Subcommittee.
They will serve until 2009.
Established by law and charter, the NIDDK Advisory Council meets three times
annually to advise the NIDDK about its research portfolio. The Council typically
undertakes broad issues of science policy. Members of the Advisory Council are
drawn from the scientific and lay communities, are appointed for 4-year terms,
and represent all areas within the Institute’s research mission. An important
role of the Council is to provide second-level peer review of grant applications
that have been scored by scientific review groups. The Council members are an
important liaison between the research communities they represent and the NIDDK,
which supports each community’s research efforts.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. |