SIU Med School Receives NIH Grant to Study Diabetes-Related Complications

A research scientist at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a three-year federal grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (NIDDK) for the study of insulin deficiency and how it leads to other health problems. Total budget for the grant is $772,200.

Louis Premkumar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, is the principal investigator for the project.

Diabetes is known to cause nerve conduction changes manifested as burning pain in some individuals and loss of sensation in others. There are certain receptors in the nerve endings, which are responsible for carrying this information to brain. This study will address how insulin deficiency in diabetes alters the nerves' receptor function. This research has important implications for understanding the mechanisms that cause nerve conduction effects and other complications involving the heart, blood vessels and kidneys in diabetes.

The study will be conducted in collaboration with SIU colleague Mary Pauza, Ph.D, assistant professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, who has developed an animal model for diabetes. Also, studies are being designed to understand whether these changes are seen in patients with diabetes, which will be done in collaboration with Dr. Romesh Khardori, Ph.D., professor and chief of endocrinology at SIU.

This is the third federal grant awarded for Premkumar's research, which totals $1.7 million. His other research area focuses on communication between nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord by studying receptors involved in nerve impulse transmission .

Premkumar joined SIU's faculty in 1999. He completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at John Curtin School of Medical Research in Australia (1994) and was a postdoctoral associate in biophysics at State University of New York (1994-95). He earned his doctoral degree at the Australian National University in Australia (1992) and his master's and bachelor's degrees at the University of Madras in India (1981, 1978).

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