Recognized by the American Diabetes Association, the Texas Diabetes Institute, located in San Antonio, Texas, provides unsurpassed comprehensive care for patients with diabetes. Its Clinical Research Center has been involved in the early stages of research on new antidiabetic medications that have been approved by the FDA for the management of diabetes in the United States and throughout the world. Metformin (Glucophage), the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of the Type 2 diabetes today was introduced and disseminated in the U.S. after results of extensive studies performed by Professor Ralph A. DeFronzo, M.D., Principal Investigator for the US Multicenter Metformin Trials, and Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute. In addition, since 1993 seminal investigations conducted at the Texas Diabetes Institute have led the way to the widespread use of other safe efficacious agents (Pioglitazone, Rosiglitazone, Atorvastatin, Losartan, Nateglinide, novel Insulin Analogs, and others) in the fight against diabetes and its complications.

More recently, Dr. DeFronzo has completed a nationwide trial using pioflitazone and delayed the appearance of diabetes. The latest trend is to combine newer drugs to address obesity and diabetes with anti-hyperglycemic effects and weight loss. This is essentially allowed with the use of Byetta, which have been extensively studied at the Texas Diabetes Institute.

A major research mission of the Texas Diabetes Institute has focused on identification of Type 2 diabetes genes that contribute to a person's genetic susceptibility to develop Type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Mexican American Community. In the Hispanic community, if both parents have diabetes, there is a 70-80% chance that their children will develop diabetes. If only one parent has diabetes, there is a 30-40% chance that the children will develop diabetes. Lack of physical activity, obesity, and a high fat diet are important contributing factors, which can magnify the genetic tendency and lead to overt diabetes. Unraveling the genetic code that causes Type 2 diabetes in Mexican-Americans is the principal aim of a large ongoing study under the leadership of Professor Ralph A. DeFronzo.

Dr. Ralph DeFronzo's legacy has been involved in clinical research for over 30 years, starting as a medical student with Professor George Cahill at the Joslin Clinic and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has published over 400 articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the basic biochemical and molecular mechanisms responsible for insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion in Type 2 diabetes to the day-to-day treatment of people with diabetes. Dr. DeFronzo is a coeditor of the ADA Physicians’ Guide for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and coeditor of the International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus. Dr. DeFronzo has received numerous awards and recognitions during his career, including the prestigious Lilly Award by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). This award is given to the Outstanding Investigator in North America. He also has received the Albert Renold Award from the ADA for his lifetime commitment to the training of young diabetes investigators. In 2003, at the annual ADA meeting, he received the Novartis Award as the Outstanding Clinical Investigator in North America and Europe. After his truly seminal findings regarding the role of insulin resistance in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes, Dr. Ralph DeFronzo’s latest quest centers on genetic research, an exciting discovery process that hopefully will lead to a cure for Type 2 diabetes mellitus.In the year 2008, Dr. Ralph DeFronzo was honored by the ADA and EPSO simultaneously with the Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement Award (ADA) and the Claude Bernard (EPSN) lectures. These are both prestigious and are the pinnacle of Dr. DeFronzo’s clinical research career in the field of diabetes.

The Texas Diabetes Institute Clinical Research Program and accomplishments includes a wide range of novel and exciting investigative protocols involving the basic etiology of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, the metabolic syndrome, obesity, hypertension, and diabetic nephropathy, as well as the development of new medications to treat patients with diabetes mellitus and its varied complications. Studies are being conducted to identify the biochemical and molecular defects responsible for Type 2 diabetes in muscle, liver, and adipocytes and to assess the efficacy and mechanism of action of new drugs in the treatment of the disease. Investigations concerning novel insulin secretagogues and non-invasive glucose monitoring techniques, as well as new drugs for the treatment of lipid disorders, atherosclerosis, kidney disease, and hypertension in patients with diabetes currently are underway. Clinical research is aimed at understanding the efficacy of exercise and other strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease in diabetes and is being conducted at TDI.

The Diabetes Clinical Research Center is a premier clinical investigative unit that is recognized throughout the world. Clinical Research Fellowships, ranging from 2-4 years, are available through stipends provided by the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and numerous pharmaceutical companies. Between 4-8 clinical research fellows per year participate in a wide variety of research programs designed to define the molecular and biochemical abnormalities responsible for Type 2 diabetes and to develop innovative methods for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and its complications. More than 50 physician-scientists and other health care professionals have trained in the Texas Diabetes Institute and now are working in prestigious academic centers, public and private organizations, and medical facilities in the U.S. and abroad. Many continue to collaborate closely with Dr. DeFronzo and other investigators at the Texas Diabetes Institute. Exchange programs and research activities are maintained with the Joslin Clinic in Boston, MA, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, the University of Pisa Medical School, Pisa, Italy, and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, to name a few.

Most research activities initiated by the Texas Diabetes Institute are covered by local papers, including The San Antonio Express News and La Prensa, and by the major TV/Radio media channels in San Antonio and in the State of Texas. Study results have been published in prestigious, well-recognized scientific journals including: The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Nature, Science, American Journal of Physiology, Annals of Internal Medicine, and many others. The Texas Diabetes Institute frequently receives national and international distinguished visitors, who are interested in our “model” research facility.

To learn more about our research center, you can email Yolanda Flores or call us at (210) 358-7200.