The University of Washington (UW) Medicine Alumni Association will honor four alumni June 7 at an evening reception at Bell Harbor International Conference Center. The event is part of the annual UW Medicine All-School Celebration planned for June 6 and 7. 
       Gerald Nepom, MD, PhD, Director of the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award. The award recognizes an alumnus or alumna whose professional achievements and cumulative contributions have brought personal distinction, enhanced the profession, improved the welfare of the general public, and brought honor to the UW School of Medicine.
       Dr. Nepom, an affiliate professor of immunology, completed both his medical degree and a PhD in biochemistry at the UW in the late 1970s. His research on mechanisms of autoimmune diseases led to the discovery of the major gene associated with Type 1 juvenile diabetes. Dr. Nepom is a leader in the areas of molecular immunology, autoimmunity, and immunotherapy, focused on building translational programs which cross multiple clinical disciplines and diseases. Dr. Nepom now leads an international cooperative effort to educate physicians and researchers about such new immune therapies, through his position as president of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies.
      

What causes our body's immune system to make mistakes, leading to
disease? Why does our immune system sometimes attack the body's tissues,
resulting in autoimmunity? Uncover the mystery of how diabetes results
from uncontrolled autoimmune disease, as Dr. Gerald Nepom, Director of
Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason and Affiliate Professor at
the University of Washington, discusses what happens when the body's
immune system accidentally attacks itself in "Predicting and Preventing
Autoimmune Diabetes" from the Molecular Medicine Series on UWTV.

Watch this program online via webstream or podcast:
http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.aspx?rID=24434

For more programs in this series, visit:
http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayseries.aspx?fid=4949

Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) has been awarded just over $5.57 million from the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund for a major new research initiative, named the Program for Autoimmune Disease Intervention (PADI). Led by BRI Director Gerald Nepom, MD, PhD, this program will focus on applying genetic and immunologic discoveries to benefit patients with autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosis.

Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI)
recently received a $5.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to further research allergens. The BRI team will work to study immune response to environmental allergens. The scientists will use tetramers to identify and study cells from individuals who are allergic to cat dander, tree and grass pollen, peanuts, mold and others.

Learn about the upcoming diabetes screenings being held throughout the Pacific Northwest and find out about regional screening sites.