Updates from Our Medalists

Keep in touch with Joslin's 50 Year Medalist Program!   Joslin’s 50 and 75 Year Medalists often have remarkable stories of their individual experiences living with diabetes.  Memories of events from the time of diagnosis and childhood, as well as personal successes and triumphs, are important and note-worthy.  Many Medalists enjoy telling their stories, and we appreciate the unique opportunity to hear these anecdotes from 50 or more courageous years with diabetes.

Click here to join the Medalist discussion boards and talk to other members of the 50-Year Medalist group!     

This photo was taken at a JDRF event for individuals with type 1 diabetes in Phoenix, Arizona on April 14th.  It shows three 50-Year Medalists (Gilda Harris, Patricia Glass, and Tom Beatson), with Dr. Aaron Kowalski of JDRF, Lorie Conway, and Judi Robinson.  All six individuals pictured have type 1 diabetes, with their years of duration adding up to slightly over 300!  This event was arranged by Lawren Romero and her colleages at JDRF Phoenix.  About 600 people were present, with speakers from all over the United States.

Photo credit: Diabetes Hands Foundation

What's New in the Medalist Program This Week?

This week, we are sending out our "Study Update" letter.  If you would like to be added to the Medalist mailing list, please email your address to: sara.turek@joslin.harvard.edu

50-Year Medalist Study Update

Summer 2012

Greetings from Josln Diabetes Center's 50-Year Medalist Study!  We are pleased to welcome many new members to the program, and we thank you for your continued support of our research and efforts to learn more about type 1 diabetes.  Your participation is essential to our work.  We continue to present 25, 50, and 75-Year awards to eligible individuals from around the world.  This past year, we awarded more 50-Year Medals than ever before, and we also presented our 50th 75-Year Medal.  In addition, we are in the process of designing an 80-Year Medal to recognize individuals who have lived for 80 or more years with type 1 diabetes.  We hope to present the first 80-Year Award in June 2012, during the rededication of the Joslin Library.  As Dr. Elliot P. Joslin once stated, "If a diabetic with his disease can live longer than his neighbor of the same age without it, I consider that he has attained a distinction, and should be recognized as outstanding."  Clearly, the Joslin Medalists deserve such appreciation and recognition as they reach remarkable 50, 75, and now 80 year milestones.

To date, the Medalist Study includes over 725 participants from 48 states who have traveled to Boston to take part in our research.  As our study population grows, we are able to initiate new and exciting projects.  For example, we are beginning to analyze data on Medalist nutritional intake and physical activity levels.  By looking at this information, we hope to learn more about how diet and exercise may affect the health of the Medalist group.  A second innovative project focuses on using skin cells from the Medalists to create induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.  These cells have the potential to become any type of cell in the human body.  Such cells may be promising in the regeneration of insulin-secreting beta cells and cells that are typically associated with eye, kidney, and other complications that develop in individuals with long-term type 1 diabetes.  A third facet of our research focuses on comparing protein-coding genes to better understand why some individuals develop complications and others do not.  By comparing these genes in Medalists without eye or kidney complications with genes from those who progress quickly to complications, we may be able to identify protective factors.  These protective factors could provide the basis for developing future therapeutics for use in those with type 1 diabetes.

In June, the Medalist Study team will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to present our latest data at the annual American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions.  Topics presented will include findings fromt he study of donated Medalist pancreases and kidneys, as well as information about sexual dysfunction in the Medalist group.  These Scientific Sessions allow us the opportunity to meet other researchers, discuss new findings, and inspire novel ways to think about our own results.

Increasing numbers of Medalist Study participants have enrolled in our organ donation program; we now collect pancreases, kidneys, eyes, skin samples and hearts from willing Medalists when they pass away.  Excitingly, we contnue to find insulin positive cells in every Medalist pancreas procured, and we are identifying protective factors from retinopathy and nephropathy in donated Medalist eyes and kidneys.  In March, Dr. Hillary Keenan presented data obtained from kidney samples at a conference on complications research in Boston.  Dr. Keenan's work noted that several kidneys from deceased Medalist Study participants had no damage, even after fifty years of type 1 diabetes.  This landmark finding reinforces our belief that there are factors protecting the Medalists from developing many of the complications that occur in others after lesser durations of type 1 diabetes.  We are extremely grateful to the families of Medalists who pass away for helping to facilitate the organ donation process.  We would be unable to pursue this important research without the generous support of Medalists and their loved ones.

A number of youhave asked us to develop improved methods of meeting and keeping in touch with other Medalists from your area and around the country.  Please feel free to visit our website.  From our webpage, you can access message boards that will allow you to post information and ask questions of other individuals in the program.  We are always happy to receive news, updates, and photos from Medalists - if you'd like us to include anything on the website, please let us know!

As you know, there are many costs involved in our research, including supplies, sutdy procedures, and laboratory analysis of samples.  One of our major expenses is covering the costs of participants traveling to Boston to take part in the study.  Our research grants cover about 80% of our costs, while the remaining 20% have come from the generosity of a few Medalists who have contributed funding.  Several of you have expressed an interest in planning walks or other events to raise money to contribute to the Medalist Program.  If you would like to plan an event in your area, please feel free to contact us.  We are also happy to hear any fundraising ideas that you might have.

Again, we would like to thank you for your continued support of our endeavors at Joslin Diabetes Center.  We are deeply appreciative of the opportunity to meet many of you and learn more about your unique backgrounds and experiences with diabetes.

Very best regards,

Dr. George King, Dr. Hillary Keenan, Sara Turek, and Stephanie Hastings

2011 MEDALIST CELEBRATION

The 2011 Joslin Diabetes Center Medalist Celebration was held on June 3 and 4th, 2011.  The celebration included tours of the Museum of Fine Arts, Fenway Park, a luncheon, and a presentation of research by the Medalist Program team.  Thank you to all who attended and made the celebration such a special event!

Our most recent 75-Year Medal recipient, Betty Sides, is shown below with her husband David and her new medal.  Congratulations to Betty for all of her accomplishments!  Betty is a true inspiration for all of us with the Medalist Program.

     Our deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Jeffrey Watts, a Joslin 50-Year Medalist who recently passed away.  We are grateful to Mr. Watts for his participation and express our sincere appreciation to his family for their continued support of Medalist research at Joslin Diabetes Center.

A link to Mr. Watt's obituary can be found here: