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Hope for obesity and cancer cures presented at 4th annual Taubman Institute Symposium

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Following a keynote address by Gov. Rick Snyder, scientists funded by the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute presented updates on their quest for cures to an audience of more than 200 at the institute’s fourth annual symposium on Oct. 14.

The event at the A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Research Building on the University of Michigan campus brought together students, researchers, elected officials, donors and philanthropists with university officials including U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the U-M Health System.

Snyder said biomedical research will play a key role in Michigan’s economic recovery, and pledged to draw on his business development experience to help translate research advances into new jobs and businesses within the state.

Taubman Scholar Charles Burant, M.D., Ph.D. highlighted his investigation into which molecules signal the brain that enough food has been eaten. Burant, who is director of the University of Michigan’s Metabolomics and Obesity center as well as a practicing physician and professor of medicine, expects to include up to 700 morbidly obese people in his ongoing clinical trials.

Studying the process of blood clotting at the genetic level is the work of David Ginsburg, M.D., another Taubman Scholar presenting at the symposium.  Ginsburg – a U-M professor of internal medicine, practicing physician and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator -- uses laboratory mice and zebrafish to identify genes responsible for the coagulation process.

Extending the life of people with pancreatic cancer and liver cancer is the aim of Theodore Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D., a Taubman Scholar, doctor and chair of the U-M Health System’s Department of Radiation Oncology.  Lawrence used scans of actual patient tumors to show how the combination of radiation and drugs targeted to the molecular structure of a tumor can help survival rates. 

“I become more impressed every time I come out here with what you are accomplishing,” said A. Alfred Taubman, who established the institute in 2008.  Since then, Taubman Scholars have initiated 10 clinical trials involving human subjects and published dozens of articles in professional journals.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” said Taubman.  His financial contribution to the institute now totals $100 million and supports some of today’s most aggressive medical science researchers – all practicing physicians -- with three-year grants that they use to fund their laboratories and scientific investigations.  Its current roster includes eight Taubman Scholars, four Emerging Scholars and four senior Taubman Scholars in their second round of funding.

Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the institute, capped off the event by announcing a new $100,000 science prize, to be awarded annually starting in 2012 to a distinguished clinician-scientist who has developed important advances in biomedical research.  The winner will be chosen by a committee comprised of current Taubman Scholars.

“We are delighted to announce the establishment of this prize, which will bring distinguished scientists from around the world to Ann Arbor,” said Feldman.

Following the symposium, an outdoor ceremony was held to commemorate the renaming of the science building to honor Taubman.