The Joslin Diabetes Center Thursday began work on a new research and clinical center focused on more efficiently integrating research and treatment.
The new Translational Center for the Cure of Diabetes being built on on the second, third, and fourth floors of Joslin’s seven-story building on the in the Longwood Medical Area will focus on 16 interrelated projects that bridge clinical care and research in an effort to foster new research approaches and collaboration.
Joslin officials say this approach will allow biomedical discoveries to be quickly translated into usable solutions for the multifaceted disease that can affect the eyes, kidneys, nerves and the cardiovascular system.
“Our life’s work is to find a cure for diabetes; as this pandemic accelerates we need to prevent it and find innovative ways to care for those who are impacted by it,” John Brooks, president and CEO of Joslin Diabetes Center, said in a statement.
Brooks said the center, and the state and private funding for it “will enable us to accelerate our clinical and research efforts, develop translational studies for curing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and will advance our work in diabetes prevention and obesity.”
The $10.8 million project was funded in part by a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center as part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative designed to spur research, investment, innovation and commercialization in the life sciences field. The grant was also matched by private donors.
“When we stood here at Joslin in 2008 and launched the Life Sciences Initiative, this is exactly the type of investment in our future we envisioned, to secure and expand the Commonwealth’s leadership in health care, innovation and job growth,” Patrick said in a statement. “Joslin Diabetes Center does life-saving work, and we are proud to be able to help advance it.”?
More than 400,000 adults have been diagnosed with diabetes in Massachusetts and the rate of diagnosis has increased 61 percent in the last 12 years, according the state. Nationwide, more than 25 million Americans have diabetes.
“This new center will make important advances in treating and preventing a devastating disease that affects so many families in Massachusetts and across the globe,” Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center president and CEO, said in a statement.
Windham-Bannister also haled the project for its creation of jobs. The renovation of nearly 20,000 square feet of space is expected to create about 50 construction jobs and center, slated to open in 2015, will offer 50 new permanent jobs in the life sciences.
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