Towards a Cure

Association-supported researchers are working to enhance our understanding of diabetes and its prevention, treatment and management.

Dr. Bruce Verchere - Vancouver, BC

If Dr. Banting were alive today, he would be interested to meet Dr. Bruce Verchere from Vancouver, BC. Dr. Verchere is a professor in the UBC Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Surgery, head of the Diabetes Research Program at the Child & Family Research Institute and holds the Irving K. Barber Chair in diabetes research. His research for the past 12 years has been funded by the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which aims to understand how insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas work and why they stop working in diabetes and after transplantation.

Since 2006, he has been a senior scholar of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. He was also awarded the Association’s Young Scientist Award in 2006. Dr. Verchere is frequently invited to give talks on his diabetes research. He is currently chair of the Association’s National Research Council and chair of the CIHR Diabetes, Obesity and Lipids (DOL) grant review panel. He was the co-chair of the Association’s Clinical & Scientific Session National Conference in 2007 and 2008.

In a recent interview, Dr. Verchere shares some of his personal motivations on diabetes research:

I initially began my career in medical research because of the intellectual challenge. I have always liked puzzles and mysteries and the idea that you could discover something that was not known before was pretty exciting. The possibility that you might discover something that could help others made it all the more enticing. Although I didn’t know many people impacted by diabetes when I started, I was drawn to diabetes research for a few reasons: first, it has remarkable Canadian history, with the discovery of insulin and the story of Drs. Banting and Best; second, I found endocrinology interesting - that hormones like insulin circulate in your blood in very small amounts and are so essential for life; and third, because the Association funded me. It was the first organization to take a chance on me and fund me as a graduate student in 1988, and I have been continually funded by the Association for my research (and grateful) ever since. I know many individuals with diabetes and draw inspiration from their stories in our search for a cure.

And why does Dr. Verchere believe people should help fund research for the Canadian Diabetes Association?

Research funded by the Association aims to find a cure for diabetes. The Association needs your help. Research costs money and, in difficult economic times, research funding is more difficult to obtain. Join us in the fight against diabetes and be part of the Canadian diabetes medical research history.