Rutgers-Camden, Rowan to collaborate on diabetes research

A new diabetes research project aims to develop medicines by marrying chemistry expertise from Rowan University with animal physiology knowledge at Rutgers-Camden.

Researchers at Rowan have begun work on some promising medicines, while Rutgers-Camden professors hope to examine plant-based folk medicines from Africa. Rowan scholars have the background to explore the mechanisms behind the medicines, while Rutgers-Camden will focus on testing them on diabetic mice.

"We need each other, because the people at Rowan are unable to test the results of their medicines on the physiology," said Joseph V. Martin, a biology professor and associate dean at Rutgers-Camden, who is one of the primary researchers on the project.

"On the other hand, the people at Rowan know much more about the particular receptors that would be influenced," he said.

The project was approved this week by the Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors, which is tasked with overseeing the universities' new work in health sciences and encouraging collaboration. The joint board will provide $30,000 in seed funding, with the expectation that researchers will apply for external grants in the future.

Kenneth Blank, Rowan's vice president for health sciences, said professor Catherine F. Yang had been working for several years on a diabetes drug.

"This grant will give her the opportunity to further refine the treatment she developed so it can be brought to the marketplace and benefit the public," he said, touching on a goal the joint board cited in approving the proposal - creating products that can be used in the real world.

The joint board was created as a compromise by 2012 legislation following a controversial proposal to merge Rutgers-Camden and Rowan. As it starts its second year, it recently received preliminary approval from the state to create a medical-scientific building in downtown Camden for use by local colleges and potentially by private research groups.

The diabetes project is the first Rutgers-Rowan effort under the auspices of the joint board.

"We view this as a first step in creating the kind of collaborative effort that the legislation intended the board to pursue," said Kris Kolluri, CEO of the joint board.

"If you look at it strictly as a matter of building a bench, it's better to build it with two research universities combined than to build it alone."