Mary Loeken: Of Mice and Mothers

They are some of life's great mysteries: how do you program your DVR? How do you program your GPS? An American Diabetes Association research project is trying to figure out something that doesn't come with a user's manual: Can your body "program" diabetes in your children while in the womb?

Meet ADA-funded researcher Mary Loeken, PhD. Using mice, Dr. Loeken is trying to understand how and why maternal diabetes can program an increased risk for type 2 diabetes in offspring.

While it is known that maternal diabetes can lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the offspring, how that risk is developed is unknown. The hypothesis is that this programming could be caused by tissue inflammation during fetal life in response to a high glucose environment.

Dr. Loeken's laboratory will experiment to determine if blocking this inflammation will prevent the development of diabetes in the offspring of the mice. The hope is one day to be able to design treatments to intervene or prevent type 2 diabetes in the offspring of mothers with diabetes.

With the assistance of a Basic Science Award from the American Diabetes Association, Dr. Loeken's lab at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts is attempting to identify these causes with the use of a new mouse model that simulates diabetic pregnancy.

"With this ADA funding, we may be the first laboratory to identify the mechanisms by which maternal diabetes leads to a greater risk of type 2 diabetes in the offspring," commented Dr. Loeken.

Dr. Loeken also uses her professional skills to volunteer her time as a member of the editorial board of the American Diabetes Association's journal Diabetes. Dr. Loeken carefully evaluates and ensures the validity of research manuscripts that are submitted for publication. Providing this service as a peer reviewer, Dr. Loeken helps to uphold the strength of one of the highest-impact journals in the field.

Locally, Dr. Loeken provided volunteer help and support by attending and greeting walkers at the 2008 ADA Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes event in Boston. Researchers typically congregate in the ADA tent during walks to discuss ADA-supported research initiatives.

"Talking to walkers about my ADA-supported research affords them the opportunity to find out how their efforts to raise funding for the ADA will be put to use," said Dr. Loeken.

Being an ADA-funded researcher and volunteer go hand in hand for Dr. Loeken. "I am very grateful for the help that I have received from the ADA for several research projects. This motivates me to get involved with ADA activities so that nonscientist volunteers who work hard to support the ADA understand how their efforts will help to improve the lives of people with diabetes."