History

In 2005, Ohio University funded the NanoBioTechnology Initiative (NBTI) for the Research Priorities Program, which was designed to support a few focused areas of research, scholarship and creative activity in an effort to bring national prominence to Ohio University's research endeavors. The NBTI was a merger of three separate teams that submitted proposals to the university’s Priorities Program. The groups included the Biomimetic Nanoscience and Nanoscale Technology (BNNT) Initiative, including scientists and engineers who examine how to use biological manufacturing strategies to create a new class of materials at the nanoscale; BioMolecular Innovation and Technology Partnership (BMIT), including chemists and biomedical engineers who study the molecular basis of diseases and are developing diagnostics, drugs and treatments for health problems; and this initiative, the Diabetes Research Initiative (DRI). Overall, the NBTI was slated to receive $8 million in funding over six years from the university. Complementing the research goals, each initiative also aimed to recruit and retain talented undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.

The original goal was for the three NBTI groups to be cohesive and to establish collaborations. But the fields proved so diverse that a unified initiative with all three groups was impractical, and collaborations across all three groups never materialized (albeit BMIT and DRI share many of the same researchers, did develop some meaningful collaborations and still collectively participate in several events). Thus, in 2007, the three groups and the university’s interim vice president for research decided to split the three initiatives into separate entities.

The funding for DRI is used to stimulate collaborative research efforts across colleges and disciplines at Ohio University in the area of diabetes. Ohio University is situated in rural Appalachian Ohio, which has one of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke in the country. Through interdisciplinary research among basic and clinical researchers, the DRI provides funding to facilitate a unique opportunity for true “bench to bedside” research. Basic research focuses on elucidating new molecular markers, diagnostics, and targeted therapeutics directed at obesity, insulin resistance, inflammation, and other disease processes involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Clinical research focuses on psychological, behavioral and social interventions for the management of diabetes and co-morbid disorders in individuals, families and communities in this underserved Appalachian cultural context.

In addition, through the OHIO College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Clinical Research Center, other clinical research studies have looked at standards of inpatient diabetes care in rural hospitals and nursing homes, the quality of treatment of children with diabetes in regional school systems. Researchers are developing strategies to overcome clinical inertia in diabetes care through use of case-based reasoning, electronic data interchange systems and an Internet-based “diabetes dashboard.” The development of a biorepository, including blood, RNA and DNA samples from diabetic patients and their first-degree relatives, linked to a rich database of clinical records, provides the potential for human correlates to the animal models being utilized by basic researchers. Further, this rich research environment strives to create mentors and research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate training at Ohio University.