Andrey Babenko, M.D., Ph.D. recently joined the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute as the organization’s sixth principal scientist. Under a $812,500 R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Babenko will lead researchers in unlocking the secrets of sulfonylurea receptors and ATP-sensitive potassium channels (KATP), which could lead to new, personalized drug therapies and minimize the adverse medical consequences of diabetes. Additionally, because KATP channels also exist in the human heart, Babenko’s research could have implications for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, as well.
“By studying the ABCC8/KCNJ11 metabolic sensors, we’ll be able to understand their mechanisms and the conditions under which diseases develop,” said Babenko. “It’d be symbolic to accomplish this mission in the Emerald City, the very place where pancreatic beta-cell KATP channels were discovered more than 20 years ago by Daniel Cook at the University of Washington,” at which Babenko has served for two years as affiliate associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at the UW Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center (DERC).
Among career highlights, in 1988-1992, Babenko’s group was the first to identify KATP channels in adult human cardiomyocytes, the first to demonstrate activation of these metabolic sensors upon hypoxia, and the first to find KATP-opening peptides. In 1996, in collaboration with Joseph Bryan, Ph.D, he pioneered analysis of structure-function relations and pharmaco-topology in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine KATP isoforms, leading to several key observations in the field of ABCC and KCNJ proteins. And in 2005, in collaboration with an international network studying neonatal diabetes (ND), he discovered diabetogenic mutant SUR1/KIR6.2 channels. Based on his analysis of the tolbutamide-sensitivity of ND-ABCC8/KCNJ11 recombinants, Babenko predicted which patients with transient and permanent ND could be successfully switched from daily insulin injections to oral sulfonylureas. Today, this new therapeutic strategy improves the lives of about 85 percent of ND-ABCC8 patients.
“Andrey deftly steps between molecules and medicine,” said Bill Hagopian, M.D., Ph.D., PNDRI’s scientific director. “He’s just as comfortable in a laboratory as in a clinic—and the work he conducts in the former leads to treatment improvements in the latter. We’re fortunate to have this duality at the institute.”
The chair of PNDRI’s board of trustees, Richard Omata, J.D., concurs, “Dr. Babenko’s research has a direct correlation to our mission at PNDRI—to eliminate diabetes and its complications. We’re obviously thrilled to have someone of his medical and scientific caliber working toward such an important goal.”
Before becoming a principal scientist at PNDRI, Babenko was a scientist at the same organization; an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine; a visiting investigator at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in France (Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, or INSERM); and a tenured senior scientist and head of research at the Pavlov Medical University and Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He also served as the scientific secretary for the Russian Academy of Science’s Problem Commission on General Physiology and was a Captain of Military Medical Service. Babenko completed both his medical degree and research doctorate at the S. M. Kirov Military Medical (formerly Imperial Medico-Surgical) Academy, made famous by Pavlov, Sechenov, Mechnikov and other scientists.
Babenko has received recognition from many scientific bodies, including being awarded a fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) and a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association. Additionally, he has secured research funding from the Russian Federation for Fundamental Investigations, French Ministry of Research and Higher Education, INSERM, Foundation for Medical Research, American Heart Association, JDRF, and the NIH.
Babenko has reported his scientific discoveries in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Circulation Research, among other publications, and has presented his work at almost 40 international meetings. He reviews for nearly 20 scientific journals and several funding agencies, including the NIH, National Science Foundation, The Wellcome Trust and others. Babenko is a member of Biophysical Society and several other professional scientific organizations.
For more information about Babenko’s research and PNDRI, visit www.pndri.org.
ABOUT PACIFIC NORTHWEST DIABETES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (PNDRI): PNDRI is an independent non-profit biomedical and clinical research center dedicated to eliminating diabetes and its complications. Founded in Seattle in 1956 by Dr. William Hutchinson, Sr., who also founded the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, PNDRI is advancing basic and clinical knowledge to help predict, prevent, treat and cure diabetes in all its forms. The Institute’s acclaimed team of 85 physicians, scientists and technical staff strive to realize clinical discoveries that improve the health of the 246 million people worldwide living with diabetes. For more information about PNDRI, visit www.pndri.org or call 206-726-1200. If you were just diagnosed with diabetes or want to learn more about the disease, please visit our Diabetes Resource page.
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CONTACT: Kelly Burkett
206-726-1203 or kburkett@pnri.org
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