FDC Funding Recipient: The University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center
The UA Steele Children’s Research Center is one of the prestigious Centers of Excellence within the UA College of Medicine – Tucson at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. It is the state’s only academic pediatric research center designated by the Arizona Board of Regents, and the only facility in Southern Arizona where researchers and physician-scientists are dedicated to advancing medical knowledge through basic and translational research to improve children’s health. As researchers, they seek to discover answers to children’s medical mysteries. As physician-scientists, they provide compassionate care to hospitalized patients at Banner Children’s – Diamond Children’s Medical Center and pediatric outpatient clinics throughout Tucson and the state. And, as faculty members with the UA Department of Pediatrics, they teach and train the next generation of pediatricians and researchers.
At the UA Steele Center, autoimmune diseases—including type 1 diabetes—are a top priority for research, education and clinical care. So far, Father’s Day Council Tucson has raised about $3.7 million to support the Steele Center’s work in type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong, incurable autoimmune disease that occurs when a child’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Currently, more than 800 Tucson-area children live with and manage their type 1 diabetes, and benefit from the impact made by Father’s Day Council Tucson!
Funds raised from Father’s Day Council Tucson supports the Steele Center’s type 1 diabetes program in the following ways:
1. Father’s Day Council Tucson Endowed Chair for Type 1 Diabetes
Nearly completed, the $2 million endowed chair will enable the Steele Center to recruit a world-class physician-scientist to conduct basic science research and lead the center’s type 1 diabetes research program.
2. Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program
This program has enabled the Steele Center to hire a fellow for three years of sub-specialty training in pediatric endocrinology research and clinical care.
3. Ongoing research studies:
Examining which relatives of people with type 1 diabetes are more likely to get the disease and methods of prevention;
Investigating methods of extending the “honeymoon” period in recently diagnosed patients by extending pancreatic function;
Investigating the link between poor sleep patterns in children and poor glucose control.