Above:  Russ Berrie, founder, chairman, and CEO of the world's leading supplier of gift products, has lived with diabetes for more than 30 years. He has provided a gift that established the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center and made possible the completion of the first new research building at P&S in 20 years.

In May of 1997, a simple doctor-patient relationship produced an extraordinary result. For some years Russ Berrie, chairman and CEO of Russ Berrie and Company, has been in the care of Dr. Robin Goland, Florence Irving Associate Professor of Medicine, for his diabetes. Today, Columbia has a new medical building, with one floor set aside as a diabetes center. A $13.5 million gift from Mr. Berrie has made possible the completion of the seven-story Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, dedicated in May. On hand to mark the occasion were Mr. Berrie and his wife, Angelica; New York Gov. George Pataki; U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, Columbia President George Rupp; Dr. Herbert Pardes; other members of the Columbia community; and the press. A $10 million grant from the Fairchild Foundation and a mix of federal, state, and Columbia University funds made up the balance of the building's cost.
Designed by Davis Brody Bond, the airy, aqua glass pavilion is the first new research building at P&S in more than 20 years. It is the second of five planned structures in Columbia University's Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, an open area that lies east of P&S at Broadway and 168th Street in Manhattan. The ultramodern building features five floors of research space and will double Columbia's lab allocation for cancer research. A recently expanded genetics program will have two floors.

On the second floor of the pavilion will be the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, named in memory of Mr. Berrie's mother, who also had diabetes. The center, scheduled to open in 1998, will bring patients together with top doctors and world-class researchers from throughout P&S. This concentration makes particular sense in diabetes. "Because the complications of diabetes are so varied--including blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, amputations, and nerve damage--the condition requires coordinated care among a sometimes bewildering array of experts," says Dr. Goland, who is director of the new center. "The diabetic patients who do best are those whose treatment is coordinated and carefully managed. A comprehensive center is the best way to do that."

The center will be the most comprehensive multidisciplinary diabetes center in the New York area, making it easier for the 1.6 million people with diabetes in the tri-state area to get the care they need. "When I needed specialized care for my own diabetes, I went to Boston because it has a comprehensive diabetes center," says Mr. Berrie. "If you take good care of yourself, you can lead an active life. I hope this new center at Columbia will make it easier for people in the New York area to do just that." Mr. Berrie is walking proof of the possibility. In addition to being the founder, chairman, and CEO of Russ Berrie and Company, the world's leading supplier of gift products such as teddy bears and figurines, Mr. Berrie is chairman of the Israeli Business Conference at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, and a member of the Board of Overseers for New York University's Stern School - the United Retail Group, and the John Harms Center. He established an Eminent Scholar Chair in Marketing at the University of Florida and is the founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mr. Berrie makes a guest appearance as a lecturer in Dr. Goland's class every year. The lecture, says Dr. Goland, is always popular. "I pride myself on my teaching, and it has been a humbling experience to hear medical students refer to me as 'the doctor who brought Mr. Berrie to give that extraordinary lecture!'" says Dr. Goland. For good luck, Mr. Berrie leaves his audience of medical students with Russ Berrie troll dolls dressed in white lab coats. And he always reminds them to care for their patients as if they were family.

To learn more about the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, visit http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/diabetes/ on the World Wide Web.

A Tradition of Strength in Diabetes Research

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center was among the first places to use insulin to treat diabetes. Recent research projects at CPMC have continued to advance diabetes treatment:

Insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetes and birth defects. Diagnosing and treating non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) before pregnancy may help prevent some severe birth defects, according to a P&S pilot study. Physicians have long known that insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) can lead to serious consequences if not controlled before and during pregnancy, says Dr. Goland. "But they often dismiss NIDDM before and during pregnancy as a 'touch of sugar.' Our results show that NIDDM deserves as much careful monitoring and control as IDDM." Of 12 women with pregestational NIDDM, three had babies with severe birth defects (two babies with heart defects and one without a brain). The babies of the six women with pregestational IDDM had no birth defects. All of the women came to the P&S diabetes program for glucose control using home glucose monitoring, but the difference may have been that all of the IDDM patients were referred for diabetes care before becoming pregnant, while the NIDDM patients didn't come until after they learned they had conceived.

Gestational diabetes treatment.
Gestational diabetes is a reversible form of diabetes that develops in the second half of pregnancy as the placenta produces hormones that block the effect of insulin. In most women, the pancreas compensates by producing more insulin. But in some women, usually those with a family history of adult-onset diabetes and obesity, the body cannot compensate and blood glucose levels climb. Gestational diabetes almost always disappears after delivery, but these women are more likely to develop diabetes in the future. Dr. Goland and colleagues found that home glucose monitoring helped these women match food and activity levels and quickly told them whether they needed insulin. Of the 115 women in the seven-year study, 110 delivered at term and only eight had cesarean sections because of the diabetes.

Islet cell transplants.
Dr. Mark A. Hardy, the Hugh Auchincloss Professor of Surgery and director of transplantation, will transplant insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells into diabetic patients who have had kidney transplants or are planning to do so. The researchers are using kidney transplant patients because they are already being monitored for rejection. If the kidney shows signs of being rejected, the islet cells probably are too. To reduce the chance that the patients will reject the islet cells, Dr. Hardy first irradiates the cells with ultraviolet B radiation, which paralyzes the antigen-presenting cells and disturbs the function of T-cells, which initiate islet cell destruction.


Above:  Dr. Robin Goland, Florence Irving Associate Professor of Medicine and director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center